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All-nude club sues Edinburg, alleges strong-arming by police
Scroll down to read the lawsuit.
EDINBURG — About 40 police officers descended on the gentlemen’s club on a Thursday night, search warrant in hand.
They allegedly turned off the water before entering the club, looking for drugs. Three employees stepped outside to see what happened.
Several marked and unmarked police vehicles and a police mobile command center crowded the parking lot at Jaguars Gold Club, 5021 W. University Drive, the night of Aug. 18, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in McAllen.
Edinburg police Chief Rolando Castañeda perched himself outside, sitting in a lawn chair as his officers searched the establishment.
The officers did not find any drugs inside the establishment — as was outlined in the search warrant — but took about $1,500 in cash and another $8,000 worth of club “tokens,” the lawsuit states. Such tokens generally serve as product-specific gift certificates.
Jaguars’ owners filed suit against the city Aug. 26, accusing it and Castañeda of attempting to strong-arm the all-nude club out of business. They ask for monetary damages and for property seized by police to be returned.
For years, the club that had been known as Longhorn Saloon sat outside the city limits. But as Edinburg expanded, it eventually annexed the property acquired by Jaguars’ owners in 2010.
All-nude clubs are barred from opening at its current location along Highway 107 on the city’s west side.
Edinburg’s Uniform Development Code allows for “adult use” establishments to set up only in industrial or general commercial zones that are at least five miles from another adult club, can be accessed only from non-primary roads — like the six-lane Highway 107 — and are at least 2,000 feet from schools, churches and playgrounds.
Jaguars’ owners admit in the lawsuit that the club violates several of the city’s development codes. But because it first existed in rural Hidalgo County, the establishment is grandfathered in and may continue to operate.
Edinburg city spokeswoman Irma Garza declined to comment about the lawsuit, but maintains police broke no laws during the Jaguars raid.
“We followed all the requirements of the law and because this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment,” she wrote in an email.
Jaguars’ owners maintain its problems came when Castañeda took the reins as police chief in May.
“Once Castañeda assumed the position of the city’s police chief, unable to close down Jaguars on zoning grounds, he began a campaign to eradicate” the club, the lawsuit states.
That campaign allegedly began in late May, when three marked police units staked out the nude club for three nights. The lawsuit accuses Castañeda of using a “tactic calculated to intimidate potential customers.”
Things heated up during the August raid, however, when dozens of officers swarmed the club, looking for narcotics.
Police zip-tied each person’s hands inside Jaguars that night and handcuffed Tony Hadaway, the club’s manager, the lawsuit states. Beyond taking the cash and club tokens, officers allegedly seized laptop and tablet computers, backpacks and one manager’s wallet.
Hadaway asked officers to keep an inventory list of the seized items, which “they declined to do and have never done,” the lawsuit states. A second manager’s wallet was seized and never returned.
Hadaway did not return calls seeking comment last week.
An initial conference in the case is set for Nov. 9.
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Jared Taylor covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4439.
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