Club forced to stop nude dancing

TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. – The town has stripped Matthew’s of its big drawing card, ordering the club to cease and desist from offering any adult entertainment as of noon Wednesday, The Lowell Sun reports.

Matthew’s manager and co-owner Donato DiRocco could not be reached Wednesday. A man answering the phone at Matthew’s on Wednesday afternoon said the club will remain open, but without entertainment, for now.

Town Building Inspector Mark Dupell issued the cease and desist order Tuesday, almost a week after a Middlesex County Superior Court judge ruled in the town’s favor in a decade-long battle with the club, The Sun reported.

Dupell could not be reached Wednesday afternoon.

Selectmen decided in 1994 to allow adult entertainment only in one area of town, off Cummings Road.

Matthew’s owners sued after the town rejected their application for an adult entertainment license, but they lost the case and a subsequent appeal. Last week, a judge dismissed a second suit brought by the club in 2000.

Matthew’s owners are still deciding whether to appeal the ruling, one of the club’s lawyers, David Lewis of Cambridge, said Wednesday.

Matthew’s has never had a license to offer adult entertainment, but the town didn’t try to enforce its zoning regulations while the case remained pending in court, in case it lost.

The town’s other strip club, the Blue Moon, has been in business for more than 35 years and is grandfathered in, according to a manager at the club.