Instead of just paying the fine and leaving town, however, the redheaded mother of five from Atlanta who danced under the name Velvet Blaze stood her ground. She spent the next two years in city and state courts seeking to have her conviction overturned, a fight that ended when the Alabama Supreme Court refused to hear her case.
The photos, which show Velvet Blaze's performances, costumes and courtroom exhibits, did not accompany the original stories and apparently have never been published - until now. Efforts to find Jones were unsuccessful. Louis Wilkinson -- who represented her in the legal fight are dead. According to a ruling by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, which rejected Jones' appeal, Jones' legal fight began with her arrest on Dec. Jones was charged by Birmingham police with participating in an indecent performance.
While performing she took off all her clothes from the waist up, except possibly for flesh-colored pasties, according to the court ruling. But the problem, according to the court ruling, apparently came when she performed upon a couch in a "tiger skin" costume below her waist. The costume had a tail "which was in close proximity to defendant's genitals at its base and which was extended upward between defendant's legs and which defendant held in her hand and rubbed or stroked while holding same; and did while performing move or rotate her hips," the ruling stated.
Also while she was performing she shook her breasts in the face of a male customer, the appeals court stated. Jones's act was such that a trier of fact could either find it a grotesque, b filthy or c filthy and funny," according to the court of criminal appeals ruling.
At one point during her trial Jones "outlined her conduct for the benefit of the trial judge," according to the ruling. The Birmingham ordinance Jones violated read: "It shall be unlawful for any person to publicly engage or participate in, or be connected with, any indecent, obscene, lewd, filthy, vulgar or lascivious scene, act, posture or performance, or for any person in charge or control of any building or premises to permit or allow the same to be done thereon or therein.
