Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Charges against brothel owner Dennis Hof dropped

Dennis Hof

Chris Kudialis

Nevada brothel owner Dennis Hof, from left, sits alongside his attorney Marc Risman, Love Ranch Manager Rodney Camacho and Pahrump resident John Bosta at a Nye County Commission meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2016.

Nye County Commissioners dropped two original charges concerning medical and licensing violations against famed brothel owner Dennis Hof today and charged him with a less serious code violation.

Sitting as the Licensing and Liquor Board, commissioners held a show cause hearing in Pahrump to discuss allegations that six prostitutes of the 12 working at the Area 51 Death Valley Cathouse in Amargosa Valley on Feb. 11 did not have current work cards or current medical examinations.

Nye County codes require every working prostitute in a brothel to complete a medical exam every seven days and to be registered with the Nye County Sheriff's Office on a quarterly basis.

The Area 51 Death Valley Cathouse is allowed to have five prostitutes working at a given time and they had current cards, Hof said. Expired cards at the brothel at the time of the February inspection belonged to one fill-in prostitute and six other other who were not present, Hof said.

After reviewing the facts in the case, Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly dropped the two original charges, but added one violation of failure to comply with signage requirements as defined in Nye County Code 9.20.130D8.

“I understand that Mr. Hof is willing to stipulate that on April 19 that he was put on legal notice of violation of (the signage code),” Wehrly said.

The violation carries a $500 fine, but that fine is suspended and will be dismissed if the Alien Cathouse doesn’t repeat that violation the next six months.

Hof, who did not attend the show cause hearing, was represented by attorney Marc Risman. Hof said the code requires a sign on doors of rooms where sexual activity occurs that states patrons must wear condoms.

“People steal them all the time, and that door didn’t have one on at that time,” Hof said via phone after the meeting. “We have hundreds of them at my brothels for that reason.”

The board approved the action, 4-0.

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