ANGOLA, Ind. (AP): A long-running federal lawsuit challenging a northeastern Indiana city’s decision to bar a couple from opening a strip club has come to an end.
Attorneys for Showgirl owners Alva and Sandra Butler received a federal court’s approval last week to dismiss their suit against Angola.
The Herald-Republican reports that Angola Mayor Dick Hickman announced Monday that the lawsuit had been withdrawn and cannot be refiled.
The Butlers had alleged in their suit filed in 2012 that city officials violated their company’s First and 14th Amendment rights in a rezoning decision that prevented the club from opening in the 9,000-person city about 40 miles north of Fort Wayne.
One of the couple’s attorneys, Matthew Hoffer, says the Butlers’ declining health “didn’t allow them to continue” pursuing the lawsuit.