Hedric's ruling comes three months after Mike Juengling, the township's director of community development, revoked a sexually oriented business license and zoning certificate for the business, which had been set to open at 9834 Harwood Court.
Tim Burke, attorney for the co-owners Melissa Warren and Eric Adams, both of Fort Wayne, argued against Juengling using a letter from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation that Adams “may not” be eligible for a license as a reason to rescind the license and zoning certificate.
Without determining if that was true or waiting for documentation, West Chester "illegally acted" to rescind both license and certificate and quell public outcry about the club by enacting a 9-month moratorium on such "sexual encounter" establishments, despite Champagne Club following all necessary zoning procedures, according to Burke.
Burke, who told the Journal-News that his clients were “obviously pleased” by the court’s decision, said Hedric’s ruling was solely about the license and that the zoning certificate issue was not before the court Tuesday.
“What the court said … was that the only reason the township had for rescinding the license was the letter from the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation that said that the FBI report indicates that he (Adams) may not qualify,” Burke said. “It never said he didn’t, and they didn’t wait for the actual documentation.”
Burke said the court “understood immediately” that the documentation was promptly delivered after the township asked Adams to procure it and, once it was delivered, “established absolutely clearly that there was no disqualifying criminal convictions in his background.”
“It was delivered at 3:39 p.m. the day that the township trustees held their first meeting to adopt a resolution,” Burke said.
At that meeting, only trustees George Lang and Mark Welch were present. Trustee Lee Wong was unable to attend.
“They adopted a resolution that purported in the last paragraph to say it was effective immediately,” he said. “It wasn’t. They totally misrepresented that.
“They couldn’t adopt an emergency resolution except by a unanimous vote of all three trustees,” Burke said.
“That’s why the township held a meeting three days later with all three trustees present to vote on the measure,” Burke said, taking issue with the township’s explanation that the move was done as a formality to ensure all trustees were able to weigh in on the matter.
“That was crap,” he said. “They misled you, and they misled the public. That’s because the first resolution was not effective immediately and they knew it, and they didn’t want to tell the public that. It was the kind of game that they were playing.”
Adam’s FBI rap sheet, Burke said, is just four pages long, a “very quick read” with only half pages of print on each.
“You can tell immediately that nothing on the FBI rap sheet disqualifies Eric Adams,” he said. “And that’s the game that the township was trying to play. They tried to argue ‘Well, we just got it. We didn’t have time to review it before the resolution was adopted’… They didn’t take more than five minutes to look at it and determine that it didn’t apply.”
The zoning license was first appealed last month to the township’s board of zoning appeals, Burke said.
The board upheld Juengling’s decision, which was adopted last week by trustees denying Burke’s appeal.
Burke said he appealed that decision to the Butler County Court of Common Pleas and moved to consolidate that case with the just-decided sexually oriented business permit case.
The township has 30 days from that appeal to file a record, one that he said presumable would include everything in front of Judge Cedric on Tuesday, plus the transcript of the hearing before the board of zoning appeals.
West Chester officials have maintained that both the permit and the license were issued to Champagne Club before the township had all necessary material from a background check on Adams, giving them the ability to withdraw the permit and license.
It will be several days before an entry with the judge’s ruling will be made available, according to the court, which said the township is able to appeal the decision.
Scott Phillips, West Chester’s attorney, could not be reached for comment Tuesday to see if township officials planned to do so.
Judi Boyko, the township’s administrator, said in a e-mail that in all things “West Chester endeavors to execute in good faith, in compliance with all laws and rules; and with the best interests of the community in mind.”
“West Chester respects the judicial appeals process and today’s ruling by the judge will be taken into account moving forward,” Boyko said in the statement. “With regard to the specific details of this case, West Chester does not comment on litigation.”
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