Adult film star Stormy Daniels, who’s currently on a national tour in the wake of her legal battle with President Trump, was arrested by undercover police officers on Wednesday night while performing at a strip club in Ohio.
Daniels was arrested on three misdemeanor charges of illegally touching patrons while performing. She posted bail and was released Thursday morning. Her attorney, Michael Avenatti, tweeted that she will plead not guilty on all three charges.
“She was arrested for allegedly allowing a customer to touch her while on stage in a non sexual manner! Are you kidding me?” Avenatti added. He went on to say Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was arrested performing “the same act she has performed across the nation at nearly a hundred strip clubs.”
Under Ohio law, employees who appear nude or seminude are barred from touching—or being touched by—patrons of a sexually-oriented business unless they’re an immediate family member.
A probable cause affidavit obtained by a local CNN affiliate said that detectives present at the Sirens Gentlemen’s Club in Columbus observed Daniels remove her top and force patrons’ faces to her breasts.
She also allegedly touched the detectives, per CNN:
“The officers also observed Ms. Clifford fondling the breasts of female patrons,” Franklin County Municipal Court records show.
When officers witnessed those activities, three detectives approached the stage. Daniels allegedly made her way toward two detectives, leaned over and grabbed their faces. She shoved each of their faces between her breasts, court documents said.
She fondled a third officer’s buttocks and breasts, according to the documents. Daniels was one of three people arrested at the club, but it’s unclear who the other two were.
Based on previous accounts of Daniels’ act, this would all seem to be part of the routine.
It also shouldn’t surprise you to learn that the set of laws used as a pretense to arrest Daniels were part of a crackdown on strip clubs and other adult businesses in Ohio, pushed by a conservative Christian group, which became law in 2007 by passing through the Republican-controlled legislature without the then-Democratic governor’s signature. The Columbus Dispatch also reported last year that although the law had been on the books for more than a decade, it’s rarely cited and unevenly enforced.
So an adult film star who rose to notoriety by challenging the president was arrested by local cops under these rarely-used laws? How verryyyyy interesting.
Update, 1:52 pm: The charges against Daniels were dropped Thursday afternoon, according to her attorney: