SCOTT BAUER / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, January 27, 2005 6:00 pm
The videotapes do not lie, the Nebraska Supreme Court said Friday in upholding an exotic dancer's conviction and sentence for performing sex acts with a dog. The court unanimously rejected the appeal of Romona Anglemyer, a 32-year-old Lincoln woman who had worked at the now defunct Mataya's Babydolls club.
Attorney General Jon Bruning said he was pleased with the decision. "It's strange enough that she decided to have sex with this dog, but what's even stranger is that there people in this country who evidently paid to see it," Bruning said.
Anglemyer argued that videotapes confiscated by Lincoln police at the club showing several people, including Anglemyer, performing sex acts with animals should not have been entered into evidence at her trial.
But the high court said the content of the tapes, together with information seized by police during the investigation, warranted their admittance and basis for the conviction.
Anglemyer did not contest that the activity shown on the videotapes constituted indecency with an animal, a misdemeanor. What she had argued was that the tapes should not have been admitted without the testimony of a witness who actually saw the events depicted and could testify to the tapes' accuracy.
Even without an eyewitness, photographic evidence can stand on its own to justify its admission at trial, the high court said in rejecting her argument.
The tape in question had a date stamp and the hotel room in which it was taken was identified by police, the court said. Additionally, there was no evidence to raise doubts about the tape's validity, the court said.
Anglemyer's attorney, Robert Chapin Jr. of Lincoln, was in court Friday and could not immediately be reached for comment.
Anglemyer also argued that her sentence of 90 days in jail and a $500 fine was based on her association with the club owner John Ways Jr. He was sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 in connection with an explosives and firearms case and has battled Lincoln officials in the courts several times regarding the strip club.
In rejecting that argument, the court said there was no evidence to support Anglemyer's claim that the sentence was based on her association with Ways. The court said her sentence was out of line with what is allowed under the law.