Las Vegas “Stripper 101” instructors on Wednesday rejected a $1 million challenge that they take a lie detector test to determine the validity of their allegations that they were secretly videotaped by management.
“We’re not going to do it. It’s a gimmick. It sounds like it came from a circus barker,” said Las Vegas attorney Eva Garcia-Mendoza, who represents five erotic dance instructors suing Stripper 101 Producer David Saxe and associated companies and individuals.
The Stripper 101 teachers filed suit in Clark County District Court in March alleging invasion of privacy. They said surveillance cameras had been secretly installed in their classroom, which they say doubled as their dressing room, and that the video feed viewed by managers showed them and students in various stages of dress and undress and performing erotic dance routines.
The non-nude show and class is a popular tourist attraction at the Miracle Mile Shops mall at the Planet Hollywood hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
Saxe has denied anyone’s privacy was violated and says the cameras were installed as part of a routine security upgrade.
On Tuesday, Saxe offered to pay the stripper instructors $1 million if they passed a lie detector test concerning their claims, including charges they suffered emotional distress upon learning they had been videotaped.
In rejecting the challenge Wednesday, Garcia-Mendoza said it was interesting that Saxe had admitted cameras were installed.
“When did they tell the instructors that? When did they tell the customers?” she asked before declaring it was her clients’ intention to not try the case in the press and to save their arguments for the courtroom.
A July hearing is planned on a motion by Saxe that the suit be dismissed.