Wooten v. Superior Court of San Bernardino County

Undercover officers visited a strip club's semi-private booths, where customers paid to watch dancers perform sexual acts on each other — not on the customers themselves. On one occasion, an officer was offered a hand job by a dancer, but no evidence showed club management (Wooten and Mendoza, defendants) knew of that offer or that such offers were routine. After a search warrant was executed, the managers were charged with pimping and pandering; they moved to dismiss, arguing no underlying prostitution existed since dancers never had sexual contact with customers. The trial court declined to dismiss.

Whether, under state law, prostitution requires sexual contact between the customer and the prostitute.