FRANKLIN, Wis. — After nearly six hours of testimony, the Franklin Common Council voted 3-2 to revoke multiple licenses for “On the Border” gentleman’s club.
The revocations of the strip club’s liquor, entertainment/amusement, and cigarette sold by machine licenses come after Franklin Police were involved in a multi-year investigation into alleged prostition, human trafficking, and drug use at the location.
General manager for “On the Border” Brian Hopkins faces a felony charge of keeping a place of prostitution as a result of that investigation.
During the special meeting on July 17, council members heard testimony from members of law enforcement, as well as licensing agent Oscar Cobian. Not present during the meeting were club owners Mary and Jerry Hay.
Attorney Michael Levine represented Cobian and the Hays, who read a letter from the owners acknowledging the seriousness of the allegations against the club. “They have made changes to further enforce the rules that have always been in place at ‘On the Border’, which are hard and [have] very serious consequences for those that break the rules, which is that they are terminated and asked to leave.”
Levine also noted that “they do their best as a club to keep their patrons safe, to keep their employees safe, and after 30 years in business, what we have learned tonight is there has been an average of one complaint per month at the most over the last six years. And most of the complaints are fairly innocuous.”
His request of the Franklin Common Council was to not take action against their licenses but “if the council does determine that some action is warranted, I would ask that it be a suspension for 30 days at the most to revisit security protocols and make any other additional changes that are recommended by the council.”
The complaint against H,B, & H LLC, the owner of “On the Border”, on June 10 included documentation from Franklin Assistant Police Chief Eric Stowers of criminal incidents at the location dating back to 2018.
Attorney Nick Cerwin, who represented the Franklin Police Department at the meeting, says this community bar “is a drain on the police department. It’s a drain on finances. It’s a drain on the moral compass of the community”.
While Cerwin acknowledged the funds donated to the community by the bar’s owners, “you can’t buy your way into or out of illegal acts,” he said.
“You can’t buy your way to say ‘we’re good folks’ just because we donate money, when you don’t do anything at the bar to ensure that people aren’t being victimized and women aren’t being trafficked,” said Cerwin.
“It can’t and it won’t get fixed in a short period of time just because of a change of ownership,” Cerwin continued. “This place has a reputation for these conducts [sic] and this stuff going on. People are still asking to do it, the officers are still investigating. It is ongoing.”
“There are only two options: either they’re ignoring [the activities] as hard as they possibly can because it just benefits them, or they’re involved,” said Cerwin. “There’s no other way you can see this amount of information and ignore it without doing so intentionally or being involved.”
Cerwin requested that the common council revoke the licenses for “On the Border” based on the length of time that the violations have occurred.
With the Franklin Common Council voting to revoke the licenses, operations at the gentlemen’s club are expected to cease immediately.
