A federal judge says she will decide in about a week whether to stop Dallas from requiring sexually oriented businesses to close between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. daily.

Attorneys for XTC Cabaret, Silver City Cabaret and Tiger Cabaret told U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle the ordinance and measures taken by police and city officials to enforce it are unconstitutional.

Their clients are seeking an injunction that would prevent Dallas from enforcing the curfew. This is the second federal challenge to the ordinance since it first took effect in January 2022.

Sexually oriented businesses are defined in city code as any business that offers services or products “intended to provide sexual stimulation or sexual gratification to the customer.” That includes adult bookstores, video stores, cabarets and other similar businesses.

Some residents told council members when the ordinance was first passed that the curfew would threaten jobs and be a “cultural harm to our city’s LGBT community.”

“There’s hundreds of people, their livelihoods are being affected,” Casey Wallace, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said at the preliminary injunction hearing on Monday. “They’re being put out of work.”

The city officially began enforcing the curfew Nov. 30 after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s temporary restraining order on the law. According to court documents, Dallas police sent out a notice ahead of time letting XTC Cabaret know they were to close during the required hours or face a 30-day suspension of their license, up to $4,000 in fines and potentially criminal charges.

Attorneys told police XTC was willing to comply by not operating as a sexually oriented business after 2 a.m. The club would just serve food and non-alcoholic drinks to those who stayed and only occasionally put on artistic, nonsexual shows in that time.

Police replied that XTC would need a new certificate of occupancy to operate as a restaurant. Even then, the club would be required to close at 2 a.m. because it’s still licensed as a sexually oriented business.

Silver City received a similar notice from police, but attorneys argue the club has a dance hall license and a late-hour permit, therefore it can operate until 4 a.m. daily except Sunday.

Boyle denied the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order in February. She wrote it was a “close call,” but the plaintiffs weren’t likely to succeed on that front based on any of their constitutional claims.

Dallas police presented data to officials in 2022 showing from 2019 to 2021, police received more calls to sexually oriented businesses between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. than between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Police also presented studies concluding sexually oriented businesses have been associated with higher crime rates.

One police officer said Monday he believed enforcement of the ordinance has contributed to a decrease in crimes reported to a federal database that tracks crimes nationwide.

Ben Allen, attorney for the clubs, said that while there are studies that outline the secondary, negative effects of adult entertainment, “that’s not true for the activity we’re trying to engage in.”

Assistant City Attorney Kathleen Fones said monitoring how sexually oriented businesses technically operate from hour to hour is “simply not a workable way to enforce the ordinance.” Officers testified doing so would require more manpower on top of already intensive investigations of crime hotspots.

Got a tip? Email Toluwani Osibamowo at tosibamowo@kera.org. You can follow Toluwani on X @tosibamowo.

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LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A Vegas Golden Knights fan says he was sucker-punched by a stranger after the game in Dallas on Wednesday night, leaving him with extensive injuries to his face and jaw.

Now, he’s on a mission to find the person who caused him all this pain.

Golden Knights fan searching for man who punched him, sent him to hospital after Dallas game (fox5vegas.com)

VGK fan Jason Bowen says he grabbed a drink with his fiancé after the game, and they were waiting for an Uber outside American Airlines Center—both wearing VGK gear—when some words were exchanged with a few Dallas fans.

Then, he says a stranger came up from behind and hit him in the face, sending him to the pavement—and to the hospital.

“While they were talking to me in my face, this guy came out of nowhere and just clobbered me. That was it,” he said.

Jason thinks this aggression may have stemmed from the growing rivalry between the Knights and Stars.

Last year, during Game 3 of the Western Conference Final in Dallas, some rowdy Stars fans threw bottles on the ice in the final seconds of the second period, as the Knights led 4-0. The Stars later apologized for the actions of their fans.

Now, the teams are facing off in the playoffs once again.

“I do know the Vegas Knights got a big rivalry now, and the whole thing with Stone going back and forth, so I do think that Dallas fans probably don’t like the Knights as much,” said Jason. “I don’t know if that contributed to it, or if they were just angry.”

Jason says the group ran away before police arrived. So, he posted in a Dallas Stars fan group on Facebook, asking for help tracking down the person who punched him.

He said the response has been positive—Stars fans saying they don’t want this one violent person representing their fan base.

“I have a lot of friends who are Dallas Stars fans. They’re good people. I have some of them that are helping me out quite a bit trying to find who this is. So, I got on there and it kind of went viral from there. Everybody’s been trying to locate who this guy is,” he said.

The VGK’s assistant equipment manager even heard about the attack and reached out to Jason personally, wishing him well. He says the team is also sending him an autographed Marchessault hockey stick and other VGK merch for the dedicated fan.

Dallas police confirmed that they responded to the injury call around 1 a.m. Thursday, a few hours after the game. However, police did not confirm if they’re searching for a suspect.

FOX5 put in a request for the full police report for this incident, but we’re still waiting for that to be processed.

Copyright 2024 KVVU. All rights reserved.

Tom Dundon is chairman and managing partner of Dallas’ Dundon Capital Partners and owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes. He’s also one of the owners of the PPA Pickleball Tour, which recently merged with MLP by Margaritaville. [Photo: Carolina Hurricanes]

Tom Dundon
Owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes
.…The Hurricanes fit both of Dundon’s criteria, says Sports Business Journal.

Dundon, the chairman and managing partner of Dallas-based Dundon Capital, became the majority owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes in 2017, three years after he took Dallas-based auto loan giant Santander Consumer USA public with an IPO that raised $1.8 billion. He’s also a co-owner of the PPA Pickleball Tour—which merged in March with Austin-based MLP by Margaritaville—and an investor in Pickleball.com. 

So you’d think he loves to watch his players in action. But that’s not the case, he told Sports Business Journal’s Ben McKeown, for one big reason: “The chance you might lose.”

Losing has become less of a factor for the Hurricanes since he bought them, though (they’re currently leading the New York Islanders 3-1 in the Stanley Cup playoffs). The SBJ’s profile of Dundon credits a lot of that success to the billionaire’s “calculating nature” as a “super competitive” owner who does “whatever it takes to win.”

Now Dundon is stepping up to the plate for something else, the SBJ reports: potentially being a lead investor for a group that wants to bring a Major League Baseball team to North Carolina.

You can read the SBJ story on Dundon here.

For more of who said what about all things North Texas, check out Every Last Word.

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