A teen's nude dancing is at the center of a court case against Shotgun Geniez's owner Clarence Judy.

Is Shotgun Geniez in Hamburg a strip club or a performing arts center? That is the question facing District Judge Timothy O’Grady in the case against Clarence Judy.

Judy, owner of the club since 2005, is charged with public indecent exposure involving a minor and admitting a minor onto premises where obscene material is exhibited. An additional charge of supplying alcohol to a minor was dropped.

During court Thursday, no one denied that a 17-year-old got on stage at Shotgun Geniez and danced fully nude twice the night of July 21, 2007. The pivotal question was whether or not that was permissible under the Iowa law that exempts theaters, concert halls, art centers, museums, or similar establishments from public decency laws.

“We’re part theater, part museum, we’re a couple of different things,” Judy said. “I’m not a strip club. I’m a theater, that’s how we exist.”

Judy testified that the dancers are independent contractors and do not have a set schedule and are not required to be nude.

“We don’t have any control over them,” he said.

He also testified that occasionally sketch books are left out for patrons to use and the club collects these drawings and saves them. In addition he said every couple of months the dancers are painted with body art as another way of expressing themselves.

The posters and paintings that hang on the walls of the club, Judy testified, make the establishment an art gallery.

When pressed, Judy testified,“I suppose most of the guys come to see nude women.”

According to the testimony of several witnesses, the night Sebek and a group of seven friends met to go into the club there were no art supplies sitting out on the tables, and, by the end of the night, the talk of the town was not the autographed Scarface poster hanging in the club but rather the performance of the 17-year-old.

Judy testified that the girl was snuck into the club by her friends and that he didn’t see her go in.

“If I would have seen her I would have ID’ed her because I didn’t know her,” he said in court.

He said the group of eight was crammed into the small entry way and blocked his view from the window purposefully.

“I’m pretty certain that’s what happened,” he said.

Later in his testimony he said because the club is a “performing arts center,” there is no Iowa law limiting entry by minors.

“Really there is no law that tells us that, we just have a policy we don’t do it,” Judy said. “You just don’t want the hassle.”

Richard Davidson, Page County Attorney assisting on the case, said, according to Judy’s reasoning, 10-year-olds could dance nude legally at the club.

The prosecution argued the club advertises itself as a strip club on its own signage as well as on its Internet site.

“On your own Web site it says, ‘Shotgun Geniez, a theater like no other in the Midwest,’ that’s because it’s not a theater, it’s a strip club,” Davidson said in closing remarks.

In the defense’s closing remarks, attorney Mike Murphy reiterated that the club allows for personal expression.

“It finds that niche, in the guise of freedom of speech and freedom of expression,” he said. “Nude dancing has been ruled art.”

After the bench trial, Fremont County Attorney Margaret Johnson said, if the judge finds Judy guilty, Shotgun Geniez would be not be considered a performing arts center any longer and would have to adhere to the Iowa public decency laws.

“A number of charges could be brought against them,” she said. “Technically, if it’s not a theater, no one down there could be nude.”

The charges against Judy are serious misdemeanors; however, since they involve a minor, they are raised to aggravated misdemeanors and carry a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a $6,250 fine and a possibility of being registered as a sex offender. Any sales tax permit in his name could be revoked for up to six months.

Judge Timothy O'Grady is expected to rule on the matter the week of July 28.