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Tampa ordered to pay Redner
By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD TAMPA -- Joe Redner, the owner of several nude dance clubs, won a $490,000 judgment against the city of Tampa on Tuesday, his first substantial monetary award after years of bruising, high-profile litigation. A Hillsborough County civil jury said Redner deserved compensation for lost profits because the city improperly prevented him from opening a bar at 2605 W Kennedy Blvd. The city refused to give Redner the zoning to allow alcohol sales after he acquired the property in foreclosure proceedings in 1992. "How does it feel to finally collect from the city? It feels just fine," Redner said Tuesday after the two-day trial. "They stole my wet zoning. I have no way of knowing whether this will teach them a lesson, or if they just laughed and said, 'It's not my money, it's the people's money.' I have a feeling that's what they say." City attorney Jim Palermo could not be reached for comment. Redner sued the city in 1994, claiming the withholding of the wet zoning denied his right to due process. While Circuit Judge Sam Pendino granted summary judgment to Redner last year, and an appeals court affirmed it in January, it was up to the Hillsborough jury to decide whether the city's behavior warranted monetary damages. Luke Lirot, Redner's lawyer, said the previous owner of the Kennedy property, Cesar Rodriguez, filed an affidavit with the city inaccurately claiming that he had not sold liquor for a month in late 1992. Lirot said the city used that as a pretext to yank the wet zoning. In addition to the nearly half-million-dollar verdict against the city, the jury awarded Redner $25,960 from Rodriguez, Lirot said. "The city grasped onto an opportunity to abuse Mr. Redner's civil rights once again," said Lirot, who has represented Redner in his battle against the city's ban on lap dancing. Redner, who owns the Mons Venus strip club, is appealing the conviction of dancers who have run afoul of the city's so-called "six-foot rule," arguing that the ordinance is unconstitutional. Redner has turned the Kennedy property into his office and said he has no plans to make it a bar, despite Tuesday's victory. Lirot called Tuesday's verdict "the first major victory against the city of Tampa," and added: "I hope to place their check in the warm company of the many other cities that have had to write my clients checks." -- Christopher Goffard can be reached at (813) 226-3337 or goffard@sptimes.com.
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From the Times |
