A manager of a Detroit strip club has been accused of hiring a 14-year-old girl as a topless dancer.
Investigators said the girl was working at The All Star Topless Bar on 8 Mile Road in Detroit.
Police said Andrew Hutson, 31, is charged with child sexually abusive activity, a 20-year-felony.
“The facts alleged in this case are truly disturbing because this is exploitation of a young female at the most base level,” said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. “Our youth are not some cheap commodity, to be used and cast aside. We are sending a clear message that if you hire underage women you will face criminal charges.”
The girl’s mother told police that she had a hard time controlling her daughter and when she was sleeping, her daughter would sneak out to the club. When someone told the mom that they saw her daughter at the club, she went there and took her home.
“She had no clothes on and some kind of dance clothes on. She’s only 14-years-old!,” exclaimed her mother, who did not want her identity revealed.
She also said the girl suffers from mental disabilities.
Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans said the girl had worked at the club two to three nights a week for the past two months, earning more than $350 a night. Evans said she would turn over most of the money to the club for the privilege of dancing and to tip the DJ and other employees.
“It is sickening by itself that this defendant allegedly knowingly allowed a child to dance in his establishment,” Evans said.
A man who worked at the club, but did not want his identity revealed, told Local 4 that the girl had a fake ID showing she was 20 years old. The man said the teen also had a fake dance card, but did not have a copy of it.
Evans said there is still no excuse as to why the club employed the teen.
“There may be a fake ID, but there wasn’t a fake dance card,” said Evans.
Because of this and many other problems at the club, Evans said he will request to have the club stripped of its business and liquor licenses.
Evans said in the past six years, there have been three fatal shootings and 11 non-fatal shootings at the club.