Teens Sue Oregon Strip Club Chain

BEAVERTON, Ore. (CN) — An underage prostitution ring at an Oregon strip club chain sent a manager to prison for 15 years, and now two teenage girls have sued the company for millions of dollars.

S.H. and A.G. filed separate but similar $4 million lawsuits in Washington County on July 8.

Lead defendant Frehoo Inc. runs four Oregon strip clubs under the name Stars Cabaret, in Beaverton, Bend, Salem and Tigard.

The girls also sued Beaverton Club manager Steven Toth, who is serving a 15-year sentence for prostituting underage girls at in a back room at the club.

S.H. was 13 when she stripped at the all-nude club and A.G. was 15, according to their lawsuits.

Both say they danced at the club's "naughty school girl night."

Toth, 45, testified at his 2014 trial that he guarded the door to the back room while the 13-year-old had paid sex with clients. He pleaded guilty and testified against the girl's pimp, with whom he said he shared profits.

The pimp, 30-year-old Victor Moreno-Hernandez, is serving a 30-year sentence for sexually abusing, drugging and prostituting the girl.

Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian in April filed charges against Frehoo and Stars co-owner Jeff Struhar, alleging illegal sexual harassment of minors.

The Beaverton club hired the 15-year-old girl to dance naked even after Toth was arrested for prostituting the 13-year-old, Avakian said at the time.

In an email to Courthouse News, club co-owner Randy Keiser denied that prostitution ever happened at the Beaverton club. Keiser said Stars' internal investigation showed that those things "could not and did not happen."

"The club continues to deny prostitution activity at the premises in spite of a former manager's plea agreement resulting in his conviction for such," Keiser wrote.

Keiser blamed the underage girls for chasing down jobs as strippers.

"With respect to engaging underage dancers, the club implemented a series of steps to provide additional measures to prevent underage persons, who are determined to circumvent the law, from gaining access," Keiser wrote. "These steps include, but are not limited to, the investment in identification verifying equipment, redundancy in checking identification, engaging a compliance officer and running background checks."

The four clubs continue to operate as usual.

Keiser announced plans in May to sell the Beaverton club to Spearmint Rhino, which already runs one strip club in Portland, and elsewhere in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

The girls also accused Frehoo of transferring assets after Toth pleaded guilty.

In addition to prison terms, Washington County Judge Thomas Kohl fined Toth and Moreno-Hernandez $150,000 each.

The two girls seek punitive damages for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligent training and supervision, failure to provide safety and security, failure to intervene, vicarious liability and violations of the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act.

They are represented by Anthony Reiner with Maloney Lauersdorf in Portland.

Here are the defendants: Frehoo Inc. dba Stars Cabaret & Steak House aka High Life LLC aka Ihat Inc. aka JMS Holdings Inc. aka MJ10 Inc. aka Nimby LLC aka NPC Concepts LLC aka RGK Holdings Inc. aka Phoenix Holdings Inc. aka SCS2 Inc. dba Stars Cabaret at the Capitol aka SCTO Inc. dba Stars Cabaret - Bridgeport aka SHM Holdings Inc. aka Weston Court Properties LLC aka W.T.H. Inc. dba Stars Cabaret ... in the Cascades, Randy Keiser, Todd Mitchell, Jeff Struhar, Jon Herkenrath, Pamela Colburn and Lisa Heinzman-Myers.

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