Fully nude lap dances, oral sex and the “Champagne Room.” ABC lays out case for revoking Sam Moore’s license to sell booze. by Chris Dovi
Last call at Club Velvet, folks.
Sam Moore, Richmond’s most notorious and least favorite son has served his last beer. The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, in a tersely worded decision issued late Thursday, has revoked immediately Moore’s license to serve alcoholic beverages.
Criminal defense lawyer Michael Morchower, who represented Moore in the criminal proceedings but not on the ABC matter, had not yet heard the decision when contacted by Style Weekly.
"Oh, Jesus!" Morchower said, informed of the ABC Board’s decision to revoke Moore’s liquor license. Moore did not immediately respond to calls for comment. Despite other published reports, Morchower said his client had yet to decide whether to appeal.
The decision comes after more than a year of Moore in the media spotlight, documenting various scrapes with both the Virginia ABC Board and the Richmond Police Department. Troubles began in 2008 with a spectacular raid at Moore’s 15th Street strip club, where ABC and Richmond Police officers culminated a months-long undercover investigation with a raid on the club.
In July of 2008, Moore did his time for offenses made public as a result of that raid, spending a few weeks in Richmond Jail after being convicted of sex with an underage girl and videotaping the escapade.
Since then, Moore has kept the spotlight trained on his Shockoe Bottom club, first with a banner opposing a baseball diamond down the street and later by bedecking the building with a massive banner depicting President Barack Obama in Joker makeup that enraged local black activists.
Just days ago Moore again made news this time for allegedly threatening a police officer during a telephone call.
Oh, gee, Uncle Junior .... sounds like you are having yrself a real pity party. If I were as ugly and hateful as you evidently are, I'd be bitter, too. You don't like it here? Move.
Thursday, February 11, 2010 5:40:05 PM by Uncle Junior
You crappy idiots. You think the world is just black and white. Get a clue. I hate you as much as I hate that Richmond Monument Avenue Statue. You know which one you are. You represent everything that is wrong with our stupid crackhead city council. You are ugly and embarrass black people and white people. You are mean and hate children. You people need to get a shot or something. The shut down speaks about how crappy and sorry your own life is not about how desent this town is becoming. Line 'em up.
Ridor Get Real, Baby. This is not about Republicans or conservatives. You insult by inference all the good Democrats and liberals who are offended that some spoiled little trust-fund brat thinks he is making the city a better place because he provides a venue for the wack jobs to get drugs, blowjobs, lapdances and $250 dollar a bottle champagne. Wrong is wrong.
Thursday, February 11, 2010 12:13:33 PM by anon
Wow. What a waste of tax dollars. I can't afford a $250.00 bottle of champange but im glad the police can purchase and drink it with my money. My tax dollars went to some guy getting off. and that explains why we are running out of salt for the roads.
Nice attempt to spin it around, Falcon. You are ignoring the fact that there will be people in Richmond who enjoys these kind of activities. I'm not interested in Club Velvet if that is what you wanted to know. If they promote some real men in stripping joints, I probably will be there.
Don't be anal retentive! You obviously have some kind of puritanical beliefs which Republicans and Conservatives embraced - "You are not allowed to do this but I can do this." - Which probably sabotaged Richmond from being progressive along with the cities up north.
R-
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 3:18:11 PM by Falcon
Ridor, Sorry if this means you will now be forced to seek services you so desire in the alleys of the Fan. If you don't like being "bored" in Richmond, go somewhere else to live, Dude.
Falcon: I'm not talking about public sexual deviancy. What folks at Club Velvet did was not done in public. They did in a room. Prostitution is the oldest business in the world. There were many reasons that attributed to the decline of Roman Empire - sex deviancy plays a *small* role in the decline. Empires come and go.
Sex and prostitution will remain for years to come, like it or not. if you don't like Club Velvet, don't go. That's it. Instead of whining and wasting your energies, invest your energies on better things to do.
When Club Velvet closes, someone will continue to patronize the adult bookstores on Boulevard, Waverly & Petersburg and solicit for sex. Or even on craigslist.org.
I think it is bold and healthy for Club Velvet to have these activities rather than to have some activities in some sleazy alleys in Fan District.
The bottom line is: What you see is part of humanity. You will *never* snuff that part out. Closing Club Velvet will not stem the problem, dear.
R-
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 2:50:48 PM by Falcon
Ridor As someone who understands my ancient Greek and Roman history, I can absolutely state that indulging sex clubs and public sexual deviancy is not a sign of progress. Rather, it is one of the symptoms clearly associated with the decline of a nation, state or city. Read Edward Gibbon on the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
justme: Perverts? I admitted that I was almost like you - sneered at people who do things like that ... until I moved to New York City and lived in Manhattan for 3.5 years. I learned that "pervert" is just ... a word, that's all it is to me.
After living in New York and appreciate the wide spectrum of this, that and there I realised that the city of Richmond truly missed a lot of interesting things mainly because the folks here wanted things to remain the same and clamp on things that might sprout something different about this city.
Falcon: Why bother to work yourself up on this? I agreed with you it is certainly amusing and appalling that we paid the undercover cops to have a good time trying to bust businesses of illicit activities with our tax money.
I think I'm more shocked at the fact that the so-called undercover cops ordered $250 bottles of champagne and pursue the employees for sex, drugs and all that.
They could have used the $ for better purposes. But what do you truly expect from Richmond and the state of Virginia, really?
I love how a person defending a place which has a pretty racist banner on the side of it is claiming that people who hate Velvet are racists... good effing job you walking contradiction. Why not try talking out of only one side of your mouth at a time? It's easier to keep your bullshit in one bucket that way.
As a Slip resident, I am ecstatic at this decision. Velvet is disgusting and an eyesore the Slip and Bottom are such beautiful areas and they've too long been spoiled by the kitsch and trash that lurks in and around that awful building, and Sam Moore is a blemish on the face of this city. I say good riddance as well, to the club, and hopefully to his sorry butt as well. We can only hope. Either way, that police report was the most entertaining thing I've read in a long time. I laughed heartily through most of it.
There's plenty of other stuff to do, by the way. Or if you insist upon being a pathetic pervert, why not head on over to one of Richmonds more LEGIT strip joints? Or is the lack of free 8-balls of coke, $20 blow jobs, and underage drunk strippers just not as appealing to you? Get lost.
Sunday, February 07, 2010 5:19:54 PM by Falcon
How many bottles of champagne and lap dances did these undercover agents have to experience before they had enough to nail Samuel J.T. Moore III? Reading the document is like watching a low-grade porn movie .... honest to goodness, we paid these cops how much money to swill champagne and play naked games with the girls at Club Velvet?
Ridor and Junior: Y'all piss me off. You don't see the waste of taxpayer dollars this represents? How many hours of video did the prosecutors have to watch before they had seen enough?
I don't want my tax dollars spent for anyone's hetero or homosexual dalliances, much less on liquor, drugs and sex videotapes.
Friday, February 05, 2010 8:20:56 PM by Uncle Junior
Jeff E and Just me - you'd probably like it if the world looked nice and safe like Short Pump where you can eat your Chipolte and keep the brown skinned people behind the counter where they belong. White? Oh, I mean right?
Only the true perverts will miss this club. There are many other things to do in Richmond. This one club closing means nothing. AND for someone to say that is the only thing that made Richmond "decent"??? Are you nuts? Really? Ok a strip club is one thing, so what but to be doing the things he was is just sick, you want something like that take a trip to vegas or take a whore home and do it there.
Friday, February 05, 2010 10:04:32 AM by Jeff E.
Yes, everyone in Richmond should move because they don't appreciate one seedy, sub-par strip club. Logic is obviously not the forte of Junior and Ridor. Guys, if Velvet is the only thing that makes you happy here wouldn't you be way better off in say Vegas or Bangkok? Just saying...
Friday, February 05, 2010 7:44:45 AM by Anonymous
Does that mean I won't have to see the Velvet spotlight all the way in FOREST HILL any longer? How is that legal, really?
Shameful. The VA ABC Board has continued to do its job that is to harass the bars, restaurants and clubs. NO wonder not many bars & clubs live longer than 10 years.
Club Velvet, like it or not, was entertaining to many.
NOw where will folks go? Richmond is boring without Club Velvet.
IPeople who hated Club Velvet can always settle down in Lynchburg for all I care.
R-
Thursday, February 04, 2010 9:37:51 PM by Uncle Junior
You idiots. Velvet was the only thing that made this crappy city decent. If you don't want good crap like this move to Chesterfield you anonymous losers and then you can live in whitey land.
