Dimitri's Last Stand

Will naturalists rid the wetlands of a wily immigrant's sex clubs?

A A A Comments By Steven Long Thursday, May 11 2000

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Casey Cutler, chief compliance officer of the Galveston district of the Corps, acknowledges that the Manetas situation has been a challenge.

"He does it real well," he says. "He's still hanging tough. He's built in the middle of the wetlands, but where he built was not wetlands." Cutler says he has looked at aerial photos from the 1930s and '40s that clearly show Dimitri's property as the remnant of a beach dune. In short, those who want Manetas shut down will not do it through the Corps.

Deron Neblett

Manetas has managed to make money off his "island" for almost 30 years.

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Neither can they expect much from the cops, at least the Galveston County Sheriff's Department, in whose jurisdiction the clubs are located, according to Captain Gean Leonard, the undersheriff who is considered the leading candidate in the race to become sheriff.

Leonard points to a nationwide study of crime rates and sexually oriented businesses that shows that crime doesn't dramatically skyrocket simply because of the location of a strip club. He says that the Ocean Cabaret and Dimitri's further demonstrate that the crime rate will not spike just because women take off their clothes in a club.

"If we have a piece of property in the middle of nowhere, we have no crime rate," he says. He does, however, keep an eye on the clubs, just in case. "We are constantly monitoring, keeping an ear to the ground for criminal intelligence."

Dimitri Manetas says there's one way to remove him from his island. If Evangeline Whorton and her allies meet his asking price, he'll sell. But he wants the $10 million after taxes.

"You tell them that," he says.

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