Knocked Out: Seedy and strange stories from Albuquerque's Downtown strip club

Eyes are usually on the dancers, but one Albuquerque establishment is catching some unwanted attention.

Knockouts Gentleman's Club has found itself in hot water, again.

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and other city officials announced this week plans to use a local ordinance to shut down the Downtown strip club, near 3rd Street and Central NW, for 30 days for failing to produce identification records for all of its adult cabaret entertainers, which is required by law.

The club's business license will be suspended for a month beginning Jan. 8.

From strippers slinging cocaine, bouncers running amok to teenagers going wild, Knockouts has found its way onto the Journal's news pages several times over the years.

2005: Teenagers in the club

In 2005, a law enforcement sting aimed to find adults buying alcohol for minors. The cops cast a big net over liquor establishments and reeled in two Knockouts employees.

One was cited for allowing an underage person into the bar, and another for selling a minor alcohol.

2008: Dinelli's night Downtown

In the wake of a police raid of a former all-ages club, where officers reportedly found illegal drugs and underage girls mixing with adult men, former Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez asked then-chief public safety officer Pete Dinelli to hit the streets of Downtown to find out what the problems were.

He stopped by some Downtown haunts still around today: Anodyne, the Library and Knockouts.

The former city official said he only spent 10 minutes at the strip club and didn't get any personal dances or tip any ladies.

"There was a young lady doing something. ... I think you would call it a lap dance," Dinelli said at the time. "The things I do for the mayor."

2012: New Year's Day brawl

Downtown Albuquerque rang in 2012 with a raucous brawl outside the strip club.

According to Journal archives, about 500 people poured out onto Central Avenue early New Year's Day when a fight broke out in front of Knockouts.

Albuquerque police had to wade through about 100 people to find a group of men who were scrapping next to the club. A witness told police it began over a disrespect issue.

The chaos ended when one man was shot, another was stabbed several times and a third man ended up with a beer-bottle shaped wound on his forehead. Several men were arrested.

2016: Lap dancing on detectives leads to arrests

Albuquerque police department undercover detectives were regulars at Knockouts in 2016.

In February, an undercover narcotics detective took some "operational funds" to Knockouts seeking a crack in a case. The detective had received numerous complaints that drugs were being sold in the open at the establishment.

The detective spent hours at the club before striking up a conversation with a dancer. She "danced one song in front of me," the detective wrote in the complaint.

“She asked me if I wanted to buy a lap dance from her,” the detective wrote. “I told her I might have to leave because I was looking for something to ‘wake me up.’”

The stripper then sold the police officer $20 worth of cocaine and she was arrested.

A few months later, two undercover detectives returned to the club with more taxpayer funds.

The officers received lap dances and then made small purchases of cocaine — one officer even tucked $20 into the talent's underwear — before arresting two dancers.

2017: Bouncer buddies busted after viral videos

It was about a week before Christmas and viral videos captured men behaving not-so-gentlemanly at the gentlemen's club.

One video showed two Knockouts bouncers roughing up a patron. Onlookers cheered as one man put his boot on the victim's neck and the other bouncer kicked him in the head and neck.

The victim admitted to police that he got a little "mouthy" with the staff, after the victim and his friend tried to re-enter the club because they had lost their hats.

The bouncers were ultimately charged with crimes connected with the attack.

The same victim was also seen that same night being attacked by Davon Lymon, who went on to be convicted of killing an Albuquerque police officer.

2023: Clean inspection

It hasn't been all bad news for the club.

It recently passed a restaurant inspection on Dec. 22.