Nuns File Lawsuit To Shutter Suburban Strip Club
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 17, 2014 3:20PM
Hell hath no fury like a group of nuns who live next to a strip club. A convent in suburban Stone Park has filed a lawsuit against the town and a “gentlemen’s club” they claim has become a public nuisance since it opened last year.
The Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo Scalabrinians claim Club Allure violates Illinois’ zoning law mandating a 1,000 foot buffer zone between adult entertainment facilities and houses of worship or schools. Club Allure is also located near homes; three neighbors and the village of Melrose Park (where part of the convent is located) are also plaintiffs in the suit.
The nuns claim they’ve dealt with “public violence, drunkenness and litter, including … empty whiskey and beer bottles, discarded contraceptive packages and products and even used condoms evidencing illicit sexual misbehavior either in the club or about its environs” since Club Allure opened. It’s like Porky’s come to life.
The suit alleges the convent was never notified of the town’s public hearing to rezone the property so lonely men could make it rain on a daily basis and that the venue’s “pulsating and rhythmic staccato-beat noise and flashing neon and strobe lights … impair the sisters’ and others’ peaceful use and enjoyment of their neighboring properties.”
Peter Breen, an attorney for the Thomas More Society which helped the nuns file the lawsuit, told the Tribune, “I think most people would find that offensive, to put a strip club next to a home for sisters.” Town attorney Dean Krone contends the zoning law is unconstitutional because it’s too wide-reaching by outlawing strip clubs within the designated area. Robert Itzkow, who used to own Club Allure and is now its attorney, said this is an ideological battle.
“The business is legally constituted,” he said. “It presents no real problems to anyone,” adding that there are fewer police calls than any liquor establishment in the village.
The convent has been fighting against Club Allure for close to two years. Stone Park was also the setting for a 2008 incident where a woman was killed and several others injured when a fight at the Nitro Nightclub spilled out into the streets.