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Officials want an end to strip club, church feud

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Published in Weird News

COSHOCTON, Ohio (UPI) -- Officials in an Ohio county are asking a church and a strip club to stop their weekly protests of each other after eight years.

Coshocton Law Director Bob Skelton wrote a letter, cosigned by Coshocton County Prosecutor Jason Given and Coshocton County Sheriff Tim Rogers, last week asking Pastor Bill Dunfee of New Beginnings Ministries and Foxhole North owner Thomas George to stop their weekly protests because of their negative impact on the county's image and the strain on local law enforcement.

Skelton said he will not be filing charges after Dunfee and Calvin Zastrow were arrested for criminal trespassing Sept. 5 at the foxhole. He said he will also not be seeking charges against George for allegedly shoving Dunfee repeatedly to get him out of the strip club's parking lot.

"These protests are becoming a little more escalated, and we're just worried about violence breaking out," Skelton told the Coshocton Tribune. The protests are becoming more personal and more problematic, so we felt the need to plead with both sides to at least stop for a while.

 

George and Dunfee said they had not received their letters as of Saturday. Dunfee said he would have to read the letter before making a decision, but George said he is unhappy with his own actions.

George said his Sunday protests at the church were designed to call attention to the church's Friday night protests at his business and the demonstrations escalated in August when his dancers started going topless at the protests, which is legal under Ohio law.

"What I've done is an extreme measure, and I absolutely apologize to the community for it," George said. It doesn't do the community at either end any good from what I can see.


Copyright 2014 by United Press International

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