San Gabriel Valley : SHOW WON’T GO ON

The fight between the city of Pasadena and a nightclub owner who wants to showcase topless dancers at his establishment near a residential area appears far from over.

A federal judge recently denied a preliminary injunction that would have required the city to allow the club to showcase such acts.

But John Weston, an attorney for Red Hot Theater Cafe owner Michael W. Kaltenhaler, said he intends to appeal the Dec. 26 ruling to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. He said he also will ask the court to permit topless dancers in place of bikini-clad performers while it considers the matter.

In last week’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins denied the club owner’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have stopped Pasadena from enforcing zoning laws that limit where adult businesses operate.

Collins ruled that the club owner was aware when he opened the business on East Foothill Boulevard that it was in an industrial zone, where such businesses are prohibited.

Weston said he expects the judge to see the case differently in a trial slated for later this year. The suit, filed last August, contends that city regulations preventing topless dancing at the businesses violate the club owner’s civil rights.