SCOTTSDALE, AZ – According to reports in the Arizona Republic and the East Valley Tribune, Scottsdale police are investigating an allegation of misdemeanor assault on a dancer at Babe’s Cabaret, a Scottsdale strip club co-owned by adult film star Jenna Jameson, Jameson’s husband Jay Grdina and other investors.In a Scottsdale police report obtained by the Tribune, the woman, whose name is redacted in the report, alleges that it was Grdina who assaulted her, grabbing her hair at the back of her head with his left hand and pulling her head sharply toward the floor across his left leg.
The police report also states that former NBA All-Star Dennis Rodman was seated at the same table as Grdina when the alleged assault took place.
No charges have been filed against Grdina and he was not arrested after the dancer reported the incident. The alleged assault took place on July 22nd according to the police report, and the dancer filed a complaint the following day.
Police Sgt. Mark Clark said that detectives plan to interview both Grdina and Rodman and that the department’s “investigators are going to give it the same attention as any case.”
“It’s early in the investigation,” Clark said “and it’s one of those cases where all we have is the accusation made by the victim.”
Clark downplayed the seriousness of the incident saying that the woman’s “hair was grabbed and she wasn’t happy about it,” adding that she didn’t appear to have any manner of physical injury and “it was humiliation more than anything.”
Babe’s Cabaret attorney Dick Hertzberg, speaking on behalf of Grdina, said that Grdina denies the allegation.
“Jay said he never pulled her hair,” Hertzberg told the Tribune. “That’s a serious allegation.”
According to Hertzberg, Grdina says that the dancer was doing a table dance when she suddenly stood up and said “Did you pull my hair?”
Hertzberg said the dancer then stormed off “and the guys at the table all kind of laughed.”
Hertzberg said that pulling a dancer’s hair would be out of character for Grdina.
“He’s not a tough-guy type at all, and he wasn’t drunk,” Hertzberg said adding that he’d “heard of customers pulling on things in these clubs, but never somebody’s hair.”
Rodman’s agent, Darren Prince, told the Tribune that he had not been contacted by Scottsdale police and said he knew nothing about the alleged incident. “Other than that, I can’t make any comment,” Prince said.
Prince did confirm that Rodman was in Scottsdale on July 22nd and did tell Prince that he had gone to a strip club while there.
The complaint comes at an inopportune time for Babe’s, with a public vote on Proposition 401 – a measure that would strictly regulate Scottsdale’s strip clubs and ban lap dancing entirely – looming in September.
Lamar Whitmer, the political consultant retained by Babe’s and Skin Cabaret to assist in the bond issue campaign, dismissed the alleged incident’s potential impact on the campaign, saying “it’s a complete non-issue.”
In a rare show of restraint, Babe’s political enemies are thus far resisting the temptation to seize on the alleged assault as political ammunition.
John Nichols, political committee chairman for YesOn401.com said of the incident “That’s an allegation to be resolved in criminal court and it’s inappropriate to comment on that.”
