ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The Orange County Tax Collector is in the process of revoking the license for a troubled local strip club.
This comes after the owner and three other employees at “Flash Dancer” were arrested on human trafficking charges last week.
It was the first such arrest of an owner and operator ever in Orange County.
Flash Dancer has been closed for renovations, but a petition sent to the Orange County Tax Collector from the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation could ensure that it doesn’t re-open for at least a year.
MBI Director Ron Stucker says his six-page document lays out how the operators knowingly engaged in human trafficking or benefitted from it financially.
“There’s other adult entertainment establishments that operate in Orange County. One role of MBA is to make sure they stay within the law, but these are very serious charges,” Stucker said. “Human trafficking of a minor is a life felony.”
9-Investigates was first to expose the two-year investigation at Flash Dancer along Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando.
Owner William Sierer, General Manager Johnathan Johnson, Assistant Manager and “House Mom” Kimberly Sinclair and Manager Paul Delavalle were all arrested on a charge of human trafficking for commercial sexual activity of a child.
All four are still in jail on no bond.
Investigators say a 15-year-old had been stripping in the club for more than a year.
“They knew we were looking at human trafficking,” Stucker said. “But the level of their illegal activity was just wide open with the same manager there that we could identify.”
The club is now facing three different lawsuits for allegations of negligent security linked to three different shootings.
In one of those incidents, a man selling BBQ outside the club was shot in the parking lot.
Attorney Jeremy Markman represents all three families.
“When you’re talking about a strip club, they don’t care who comes in as long as they got the cash in their pocket to come around and make it rain,” Markman said. “That’s all they care about.”
Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph says the club could still appeal the revocation.