The demolition of Rosalinda’s Gentlemen’s Club and Motel located along Hwy 108 in Jamestown began yesterday, four months after an undercover investigation culminating in a search warrant was conducted resulting in ten people being booked into the county jail.

Crews arrived this morning to continue with efforts focused on the building which once served as a strip club and found several transients asleep inside. Sheriff’s Deputies responded and cleared the building to assure there was no other people inside and it was safe to proceed with demolition. Crews will remain on the property throughout the week to clean up debris.

The owner and operator of the establishment, 78-year-old Rosalinda Aponte Sanmartin, was not at the business at the time of the warrant service but later turned herself in and was booked on numerous charges stemming from this investigation such as maintaining/operating a drug house, providing alcohol without proper permits, and possession and transportation of drugs for sale.

Agents of the Tuolumne Narcotics Team (TNT) with assistance of the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office SWAT, Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office Detectives, Tuolumne County Probation, Child Welfare Services, and Tuolumne County Code Enforcement assisted in the investigation of the establishment where numerous health and building code violations were found.

The Operation was jointly launched by TNT and ABC in late 2017, after meeting together to discuss the host of calls for service, complaints, and violations that have taken place at the establishment over the years. 
In 2017 alone, Rosalinda’s Gentlemen’s Club generated over 50 calls for service that required a response from the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office. In the last five years, the club has generated almost 200 calls for service, many serious in nature such as the 2015 stabbing of one dancer by another at the establishment, and the recent rape investigation that was reported in November of 2017. Everything from assaults to sexual assaults, to code violations and thefts have been reported at this location over the years.

The search warrant was generated after several months of investigation into the Jamestown strip club in which illegal alcohol violations, California Code of Regulations violations, narcotics, and prostitution were investigated. During the investigation, narcotics were purchased on multiple occasions and prostitution was solicited from at least one exotic dancer employed at the club. Multiple ABC violations were also observed nightly by the undercover detectives.

Two weeks after the business was condemned, a fire ignited in the early morning hours in the hotel area and was fully engulfed in flames when CAL Fire arrived on scene. The flames then spread to the strip club, causing major damage. What ignited the fire is still currently under investigation.

Many Tuolumne County residents are relieved that the eye sore seen by highway travelers coming into the County will now be a thing of the past.