SEATTLE — It’s the first strip club in what locals call Seattle's design district, and the people there aren't exactly purring about Kittens Cabaret opening in their Georgetown neighborhood.
When KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Deborah Horne met interior designer Claudia Lovgren outside the Seattle Design Center, she already had her claws out.
"You're not happy about it being here?" asked Horne.
"Of course not," said Lovgren. "Why would I want to be around something like that? We have enough of these places. There's been enough trouble with those. And we know that much more goes on than just dancing."
Nearly six years ago, Seattle police and federal authorities broke up the strip club empire of the late Frank Colacurcio with prostitution and corruption raids in King and Pierce counties.
Among those busted was David Ebert, a longtime Colacurcio associate. According to City of Seattle records, Ebert's wife, Michelle, filed an application for an adult cabaret in October 2012. Three months later, in January of 2013, she got the city's OK. A month after that, she and Ebert filed for divorce.
"Is that just a coincidence?" Horne asked Ebert at her office.
"That is just a coincidence," said Ebert. "I was already separated long before that. And my ex-husband moved to Arizona long before.”
Ebert said she remarried in August and her new last name is Wright. As a former stripper herself, she said she simply went into a business she knows.
"Honestly, this is my business," Ebert said. "I own it. I bought it through my divorce. It's all mine -- 100 percent.”
Ebert said the strip club is a family affair. Her two sons and her mother work there as well.
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