Liquor board punishes strip club over prostitution and fruit flies

The Honolulu Liquor Commission fined a Honolulu strip club $2,450 Thursday for prostitution and other offenses.

The owner of Club Red Rose, at 1646 Kona St., pleaded no contest on May 12 to five violations, including failing to immediately suppress lewd, immoral or unlawful conduct and failing to maintain sanitary conditions.

Keith Kiuchi, an attorney for the business, blamed the prostitution activity on the employee.

"With these types of offenses, it’s more who you hire than anything else," Kiuchi told the commission.

The sanitary offense resulted from investigators finding fruit flies in a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey.

According to city Deputy Corporation Counsel Mia Obciana, the incidents happened on July 23, 2010, during an investigation by police Narcotics Vice Division officers.

An employee approached an undercover officer and asked him to buy her a nonalcoholic drink. The officer bought the drink, and the woman gave the officer a lap dance and removed her dress and top for $60, Obciana said. The woman then allegedly offered the officer sexual contact for $100. The officer paid the money to the employee, who went into a room with the officer and brought a condom, Obciana said. Police arrested the woman.

The strip club fired the employee, Kiuchi said.

Club Red Rose faces another violation of failing to suppress illegal conduct that the commission will hear.