I'm sure you are going to bitch and whine, but I offer you congrats for your part in bringing the "Ripley" scene all the public awareness!  A local fun spot will be gone for good this time.  Oh well, glad I was able to enjoy it for the past 10 years........


Little Falls man faces another prostitution charge

Brainerd Daily Dispatch 8-27-05

A rural Little Falls man who in May was charged with promoting prostitution at the Camp Bar near Camp Ripley was arrested Thursday for once again allegedly promoting prostitution there.

A 25-year-old Brooklyn Park woman who previously had been arrested at the Camp Bar and charged with prostitution also was arrested in the investigation.

On Thursday, Morrison County deputies and Minnesota BCA agents conducted an undercover investigation into prostitution at the Camp Bar in Green Prairie Township after receiving complaints that prostitution was continuing to go on there, Morrison County Sheriff Michel Wetzel said Friday.

"Our earlier arrest hadn't seemed to stop the problem," Wetzel said.

Wetzel said one of the dancers in the bar offered an undercover officer sex for money Thursday. The dancer allegedly told the officer that part of the money would need to be paid to the bar owner for use of the VIP room in the bar.

After officers moved in, money used in the undercover operation was located in the pocket of Camp Bar owner Gordon Wheeler Sr., 57, of rural Little Falls. Wheeler, along with 25-year-old Natasha Dunagan of Brooklyn Park, were arrested, booked and released Thursday from the Morrison County Jail. The case will be forwarded to the Morrison County Attorney's Office for formal charges.

Both Wheeler and Dunagan were arrested in April after a four-month investigation into prostitution at the Camp Bar. Charges are still pending in Morrison County District Court against Wheeler for felony promoting prostitution, felony profiting from prostitution and gross misdemeanor owning or operating a disorderly house. A Morrison County judge has a pretrial motion in Wheeler's criminal case under advisement, with a ruling expected by Sept. 29.

Earlier this month a Morrison County judge ruled that Wheeler was prohibited from operating Lookin' Fine Smut and Porno, an adult use business Wheeler operated for a brief time in 2003 near the Camp Bar, because it violated Morrison County's land use ordinances.

An administrative law judge is expected to determine whether the county has to renew Wheeler's liquor license for the Camp Bar at a hearing that previously was scheduled for Aug. 16 but was rescheduled for Sept. 21. Wheeler has a temporary liquor license that expires Sept. 30.

Morrison County Attorney Conrad Freeberg, who said in his 18 years as county attorney this is the first prostitution case he's dealt with, said he hasn't yet seen the reports on the recent prostitution investigation.

"It certainly makes our belief that his liquor license shouldn't be renewed stronger," Freeberg said of Wheeler's most recent arrest.

Charges pending in Morrison County District Court against Dunagan from the previous investigation include two counts of gross misdemeanor solicitation to engage in prostitution and two counts of misdemeanor prostitution. Four other women also were charged in the April investigation into alleged prostitution at the Camp Bar.

Wetzel said it doesn't demonstrate good judgment to be arrested for prostitution, then arrested again for the same crime five months later.

"That tells me that you either don't care or you're not very bright, one of the two," said Wetzel.