Crime Blotter: Strippers Cop Plea in Spanking Case

Nov. 18, 2005 — -- Three strippers plead guilty to getting a little too rough with a spanking; an outhouse 'Peeping Tom' agrees to get some help; and a two-time ID theft suspect may wish she was someone else. The "Crime Blotter" has many imitators but promises to make you smile -- without the rough-housing.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Three erotic dancers have pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a case where a bar patron complained that some playful spanking became a little too rough.

Erotic dancers Kelly Eslick, Lisa Nolen and Charlene Smith were initially charged with participating in an obscene act and misdemeanor third-degree battery for allegedly going a little too far during an onstage spanking performance on truck driver Keith Lowery. The dancers all work at Sensations Night Club in Jacksonville where Lowery celebrated his 31st birthday with friends.

Lowery told Pulaski County investigators that he was handcuffed and spanked with a belt and 18-inch paddle after his friends paid $25 for the performance. He said he suffered bruises so severe that he was unable to sit comfortably for five days.

Pulaski County District Judge Wayne Gruber dismissed the battery charges after they agreed to plead guilty to disorderly conduct along with club employees James Daugherty and Dena Mitchell. They also were fined $100 each.

Gruber also ordered the paddle used on Lowery be destroyed. The paddle was drilled with holes and had the name "Velvet" -- the stage name of the dancer who wielded the instrument -- inscribed on it, and Gruber did not want it sold for profit.

Authorities say Sensations has officially retired "Velvet" the paddle, and they have recommended that the nightclub take a more traditional approach to birthday celebrations.

"We suggest cake and ice cream parties for birthdays," said prosecutor Larry Jegley.

CONWAY, N.H. -- A man who said he was only looking for his wedding ring after police found him in the sewage tank of an outhouse has pleaded no contest to criminal trespass and will receive psychiatric treatment.

Gary Moody, 45, was arrested in June after a teenage girl noticed him looking at her from the depths of a toilet seat in an outhouse at Lower Falls in the White Mountain National Forest. In court documents, police reported that Moody insisted he was not doing anything wrong and had gone into the sewage tank to retrieve a wedding ring he had accidentally dropped while changing clothes.

Moody pleaded no contest on Oct. 25 and was fined $1,000. He also was ordered to pay $700 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service and stay off national forest lands for two years. Moody was also sentenced to 30 days in the Carroll County House of Correction, a punishment that would be suspended after two years of good behavior.

"Anyone who was in the ladies' toilet is a victim and females at large are victims and they have heightened scrutiny for fear of what they may find there," Carroll County District Judge Pamela Albee said. "I think Mr. Moody requires treatment."

Police said they examined the sewage and did not find a wedding ring. Moody, Herbert wrote, said he lowered himself directly through the toilet opening to search for the ring and tried to hide out of embarrassment when he heard someone enter the outhouse.

County law enforcement officials said they do not know how long Moody was in the sewage tank but they had to decontaminate him before his formal arrest.

KENT, Wash. -- A Washington woman who pleaded guilty to identity theft may wish she was another person as she has been arrested again for the same crime.

Police arrested Jane Lunbeck after they said she tried to use a phony fire department identification card to cash a check. A bank teller alerted authorities after Lunbeck allegedly tried to use the ID. When Lunbeck ran away, a customer wrote down her license plate number and authorities tracked her down.

"That's pretty frightening that they would take a government agency and make a forged ID," Fife Police Detective Jeff Nolta told ABC News affiliate KOMO-TV in Seattle. "People trust government agencies, and they'd see an ID like that and think it must be valid."

In February, Lunbeck was sentenced to 45 days in jail after pleading guilty to identity theft. In that case, she admitted using a stolen state patrol badge to pass forged checks.