A wet T-shirt contest quickly degenerated into a no T-shirt contest during a Mardi Gras celebration at a popular Toledo country-music bar.

While onstage at Bootleggers in front of a jam-packed audience, some standing on chairs or sitting on friends' shoulders to get a better view, a dozen women vying for a $100 prize stepped in pairs into a kiddie pool Thursday to have ice water poured over their thin, white T-shirts. Most removed their tops. Others removed their pants and more.

A city official says the contest at least violated the city's zoning code, which prohibits sexually oriented businesses from being within 1,000 feet of each other. Deja Vu, a nude dance club, is two storefronts down from Bootleggers, 135 South Byrne Rd.

Bootleggers manager John Kwiatkowski told The Blade he didn't see any nudity during the contest. "If I saw that, I would have stopped that immediately," he said. "We don't condone any of that. I doubt if any of that happened because I'm pretty aware of what's going on."

But Rachelle Mitchell, one of the participants, said she removed her shirt while vying for the $100 prize at the club, as did most of the other contestants.

"There was one girl that got completely naked," said the 19-year-old Swanton woman, who said she's been in similar contests before.

"This one was a little bit crazier, I think, because more people were taking their clothes off."

Bootleggers is one of the two recent cases of bar owners' testing the limits of the city's zoning code. The other is Club XS, a nude dance bar at 534 South Reynolds Rd.

The city of Toledo has filed a preliminary injunction to try to get an immediate hearing on a zoning complaint against the club. John Madigan, acting city law director, said the original complaint was filed two months ago. He said a decision could still take two or three more months.

Toledo's case is against Chehade Inc., doing business as Club XS, and property owner Toledo Management LLC., which is based in Utica, Mich., a Detroit suburb.

Club XS's "statutory agent" is Morris Z. Shehadeh, 2126 Chelmsford Lane, in Toledo, according to court records.

Sexually oriented businesses are regulated through the city's zoning code, which prohibits businesses that stage nude dance performances to be located within 500 feet of a residential neighborhood.

Two manufactured housing developments are within 500 feet of Club XS, city planning director Steve Herwat said.

The code also states that such an establishment cannot be located within 500 feet of any K-12 school or pre-school; religious institution; public park, playground, or library; child day-care center, or any other place established for minors.

While the city can enforce zoning code violations for sexually oriented businesses, a federal injunction is posing problems for state liquor agents who are almost powerless to enforce a portion of the Ohio Administrative Code governing "improper conduct."

In 1998, Judge Ann Aldrich of the U.S. District Court in Cleveland ruled a portion of Rule 52 as unconstitutionally vague after it was challenged by a Cleveland bar.

As it stands now, agents with the Ohio Department of Public Safety cannot enforce the section of Rule 52 that prohibits nude dancing in establishments that sell alcohol, said Richard Cologie, a spokesman for the Ohio Investigative Unit, which operates under the state's department of public safety.

"Until that injunction is either appealed or upheld," he said, "we're going to have to comply with the court injunction."

Blade staff writer Tom Troy contributed to this report.

Contact Erika Ray at:

eray@theblade.com

or 419-724-6088.

First Published March 2, 2006, 11:42 a.m.