The diligent reporters over at Tobacco Avenue have feretted out the truth about this whole Velvet Obama contretemps:

Velvet gentlemen’s club owner Samuel J.T. Moore III hung a banner on his establishment during the weekend depicting President Obama as The Joker, the latest attempt by the controversial business owner to get the nation’s 44th president cast in the sequel to 2008’s “The Dark Knight.”

Moore, a self-proclaimed “comics geek” who owns nearly every Batman comic book since the superhero’s introduction in 1939, praised the president’s “impressive jawline” and “those pull-you-right-in eyes,” traits the business owner says make Obama a natural choice for the role in the upcoming 2011 film.

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The NAACP protest of the Obama/Joke/Socialist image hung on Club Velvet has gone national with media in Phoenix, Hampton Roads, Philadelphia, Washington D.C, and New York (among others) picking up the story.

The NAACP will hold a press conference today at noon at 15th and Main St. outside Club Velvet to protest its banner of President Obama depicted as The Joker. The VCU and VUU chapters of the organization will address the community’s reaction and ongoing racial hostility. [via]

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Yesterday, zoning officials met to review the large anti-stadium sign hanging outside Club Velvet. Officials moved to continue the case on May 6 because of a new sign Sam Moore posted. The continuation will allow the zoning administrator a chance to revisit the club (ha!). The new sign refers directly to the stadium financing bills in the House of Delegates and Senate, an effort to clarify that the signs are in fact political. Political signs are considered free speech and exempt from zoning codes. [via]

Charges have been filed against Club Velvet owner, Sam Moore, for selling alcoholic beverages to minors and other illegal activities in the strip club. The charges are based on a late-night raid last year by several state agencies.  The state charges could result in losing his license to sell alcoholic beverages. The RTD has more details:

“The place occupied by the licensee has become a meeting place or rendezvous for illegal users of narcotics, prostitutes, drunks, pimps, panderers or habitual law violators or has become a place where illegal drugs are regularly distributed,” states one of 11 charges issued against Velvet, citing a specific provision of state law.

Zoning violation or free speech? A large sign hanging on the side of Club Velvet proclaiming “No Stadium in Shockoe” has earned the night club a zoning violation for exceeding the allowed size and not receiving approval from the city. However, owner Sam Moore is appealing based on a political campaign sign exemption. The RTD has more:

According to Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Moore could have a case, because there’s little to distinguish a sign that backs a candidate for elective office and one that supports — or opposes — a ballpark.

The flap comes as city officials are considering Shockoe Center, a $363 million development that would include a minor-league ballpark, hotels, offices, restaurants, retail businesses and residences.

It has been over a year since one of Shockoe Bottom’s most defining features has been painted over.

Club Velvet owner Sam Moore was released from jail this morning after serving about 30 days of his 60 day sentence for having sex with a minor and filming sex with an adult. [via]

Club Velvet owner Samuel Moore was sentenced to 60 days for having sex with a minor and filming sex with an adult. He could be released in as soon as 30 days with time off for good behavior. [via]

“I deeply regret my lack of good judgment,” Moore said today before he was sentenced in Richmond Circuit Court. “I apologize to the commonwealth and the two young ladies involved. I hope in the future I’ll have the strength and wisdom to make proper changes in my life.”

Club Velvet owner Sam Moore pleaded guilty three misdemeanor counts related to having sex with a minor and an 18-year-old woman. Moore will receive a suspended sentence on two of the counts, and on the third count, having sex with someone between 15 and 17, sentencing has been set for June 26. [via]

Club Velvet owner Samuel Moore, charged with a felony for allegedly filming himself having sex with a 17-year-old from video snagged during a February raid on the strip club, “argued today that he cannot be prosecuted for having sex with a minor and filming it because the girl was married and two months shy of her 18th birthday”. [via]