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Categories: Civil Liberties/Privacy, Consumer and Worker Protection, Honest and Ethical Government, Civil Rights and Equality, Ranting and Venting, Arts and Culture, Faith and Religion, GLBT Issues, Women's Issues
Citizens for Community Values doesn't value honesty -- and is finally learning that lots of other people do.
Despite a law that bans making a false statement "with purpose to mislead a public official in performing the public official's official function,'' CCV's lawyer did some serious misleading. They told the House Judiciary Committee that a proposal to restrict strip clubs mirrors existing laws in other states -- and said the proposed distance restrictions had been upheld in other jurisdictions.
The measure calls for adult entertainers to stay at least six feet from customers.
After a Columbus Dispatch report showed that the Ohio plan would be the most extreme set of restrictions in the nation, CCV lawyer David Miller was forced to tell the House panel that he wanted to "clarify'' the previous testimony.
Committee members were visibly angry, with one saying he was "deeply disturbed'' that a mistake of this magnitude had been made.
First Amendment attorney Raymond Vasvari came close to calling CCV a bunch of liars. He told the committee that it was "disingenuous at best" for CCV to claim their lawyer had simply made a mistake.
"You are being misled," Mr. Vasvari said.
Later in the hearing, Joe Hall from Deja vu Consulting provided signed, notarized affidavits attesting that CCV lobbied for restrictions in Michigan, in part, by paying a man to give false testimony to Michigan officials about criminal misconduct in a Toledo club. The man later went to prison.
Finally, it appears as if the legislators are getting weary of CCV's tactics.
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