Shane Harrington of Omaha: Federal Trafficking Suit and Countersuits

Shane Harrington is an Omaha strip club owner whose company Meltech Inc. operates Club Omaha and Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club, and who previously owned the rural Nebraska club Paradise City. In December 2025, a woman filed a federal civil lawsuit under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act alleging she was sex-trafficked at Paradise City as a 15-year-old, naming Harrington and Meltech among the defendants. Harrington denies any involvement, has called the suit “frivolous,” and has filed his own countersuits against the plaintiff’s attorneys and against insurers that refused to defend him. He was not charged in the underlying criminal investigation.

The 2025 Federal Trafficking Lawsuit

On December 8, 2025, a plaintiff identified as “Jane Doe” filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska, case number 7:25-cv-05010, captioned Jane Doe v. Harrington et al.¹ An amended complaint followed on December 24, 2025. The suit was brought under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act and seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, and legal fees.²

The plaintiff alleges that from about July 2019 through January 2020, a man named Billy Quinn forced her to engage in sex trafficking out of Paradise City, a strip club along Interstate 80 between Kearney and Lexington. The complaint says employees and agents of the club let patrons pay Quinn for sex with her, knowing or having reason to know she was a minor being coerced.²

Alongside Harrington and Meltech, the suit names Timothy Jeys, who bought Paradise City from Harrington in April 2018; Carl Kramer Sr. of Oxford, Nebraska, alleged to have paid Quinn for sex with the victim and taken nude photos of her; Joseph Baumbach of McCook, alleged to have failed to help the victim or contact police; and Jay Sedhi Hospitality, owner of the Rodeway Inn, accused of failing to prevent trafficking on its premises.³ The complaint includes a conspiracy count tied to events on or around Halloween 2019 and alleges Harrington and Meltech operated the club as a joint venture with Jeys, sharing dancers, revenue, and control of the premises.⁴

Harrington’s Denial and Countersuits

Harrington’s attorney, Evan Spencer, said “all allegations are 100% false” and argued Harrington was not the owner of Paradise City during the alleged trafficking period, having sold the club to Jeys in April 2018.³ The plaintiff’s attorney, Maren Chaloupka, has countered that Harrington and Meltech remained joint venture owners and served as Jeys’ landlord until August 2022.

Harrington’s team at the Fraser Stryker firm asked Chaloupka to dismiss the suit or file an amended complaint with a retraction and apology. When she reportedly refused, Harrington sued Chaloupka and co-counsel Todd Flynn in Douglas County District Court, seeking $5 million and calling the federal case an “attempted cash grab because I have money.” That suit alleges abuse of process under Nebraska law for keeping his name in the federal complaint.³

Harrington and Meltech also sued their insurers in federal court in Omaha, case number 8:26-cv-00031, after Selective Insurance Company of America, Munich Re, Mesa Underwriters Specialty Insurance Company, and American Alternative Insurance Company denied any duty to defend or indemnify them in the trafficking litigation.⁵ In May 2026, American Strategic Insurance Corp. moved to escape the coverage fight, arguing that its homeowners policy on Harrington’s Omaha residence was never intended to cover commercial strip club litigation, and that policy exclusions for sexual abuse, illegal acts, and business-related claims all applied.⁴ As of mid-2026, the trafficking suit and the insurance dispute are both active, with no trial dates set.

The Underlying Criminal Case

The civil complaint grew out of a criminal investigation centered in Furnas County. William “Billy” Quinn of Oxford was convicted of 13 felonies, including sex trafficking of a minor, first-degree sexual assault of a child, and production of child pornography. In December 2021, a Furnas County judge sentenced Quinn to a minimum of 176.5 years and a maximum of 304 years in prison for subjecting a 15-year-old victim to roughly six months of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.⁶

Eighteen men in total were arrested in connection with Quinn’s trafficking operation.⁷ Two are also named as defendants in the civil case. Carl Kramer Sr., originally charged with three counts of sex trafficking of a minor, pleaded guilty to two counts of felony child abuse and was sentenced in December 2021 to five years of probation and 90 days in jail.⁸ Joseph Baumbach, initially charged with manufacturing child pornography, pleaded no contest to contributing to the delinquency of a minor and was found guilty of tampering with physical evidence for deleting a video of a partially nude minor from his phone after learning of the investigation; he received 30 days in jail, another 90 days to be served later, three years of probation, and 200 hours of community service.⁹

Harrington himself was not charged in the criminal investigation.

His Strip Club Businesses in Nebraska

Harrington’s flagship venue is Club Omaha, a private membership club featuring fully nude dancing that historically operated as a “bottle club,” meaning it held no liquor license but allowed patrons to bring their own alcohol.¹⁰ By not serving alcohol, the club sidestepped Nebraska Liquor Control Commission rules that would have restricted nudity and physical contact between performers and customers.

In 2015 he bought Paradise City, at the I-80 interchange near Elm Creek in Buffalo County, and began remodeling it.¹¹ Like Club Omaha, it did not serve alcohol and operated with full nudity. He sold the club to Timothy Jeys in April 2018, but he and Meltech remained Jeys’ landlord until August 2022.³

In September 2019, the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission voted 3-0 to grant Harrington a liquor license for Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club, a bikini bar next door to Club Omaha at 120th and Center Road.¹² The approval carried conditions: he had to drop three pending lawsuits against the city and state, prohibit alcohol at the adjacent Club Omaha, and allow law enforcement to enter both venues at any time.¹³

Prior Lawsuits Against Nebraska and Omaha Officials

Harrington’s litigation with government officials began in earnest after the Nebraska Legislature passed a 2017 law, later codified as L.B. 1120, requiring bottle clubs to obtain state liquor licenses. The measure threatened Club Omaha’s business model directly.

In 2018 he sued the state, the governor, the Liquor Control Commission, and others in federal court, arguing the bottle club law was unconstitutional, discriminatory, and passed in retaliation for political speech.¹⁰ In Harrington v. Strong, Judge Laurie Smith Camp dismissed all claims in January 2019, finding that many of his roughly 20 causes of action were barred by sovereign immunity, precluded by prior state-court litigation, or failed to state a claim.¹⁴

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Omaha police cited Harrington for violating directed health measures after a compliance check found dancers and customers were not six feet apart at Club Omaha.¹⁵ Officers entered the clubs multiple times over the following months, including a May 2020 armed search warrant execution. In August 2020, the Omaha City Council voted 7-0 to recommend denial of a bottle-club license application for Club 120, another Harrington venture, citing the health-measure violations and allegations that Club Omaha had been operating as an unlicensed bottle club since July 2019.¹⁶

He responded with another federal lawsuit, naming Mayor Jean Stothert, city council members, police officials, and the Douglas County Sheriff. The court, noting a “kitchen sink” approach and heavy overlap with Harrington v. Strong, dismissed the case in its entirety in June 2021.¹⁶

The Wage and Retaliation Case Brought by Dancers

In 2020, a group of dancers at Club Omaha filed a Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit alleging Harrington and Meltech misclassified them as independent contractors and failed to pay minimum and overtime wages. In Grove et al. v. Meltech, Inc. et al., case number 8:20-cv-00193, the court granted the dancers a preliminary injunction in December 2020, finding a “substantial likelihood of success on the merits” on their retaliation claims.¹⁷

The court found Harrington had sent messages to dancers threatening to fire them for participating in the lawsuit, threatening to sue participants, and telling them he would seek $500,000 in damages from plaintiffs. At least one dancer was terminated for her involvement. The judge prohibited further retaliation and tolled the statute of limitations for potential additional plaintiffs. Harrington’s defense had called the case “frivolous,” asserted the dancers were bound by independent contractor agreements with arbitration clauses, and offered a $50,000 settlement that was rejected.¹⁷

1
North Platte Post. Jane Doe v. Harrington et al
2
Nebraska.tv. Sex Trafficking Victim Files Federal Lawsuit Against Alleged Traffickers and Collaborators
3
Omaha World-Herald. Sex Trafficking Lawsuit Names Omaha Strip Club Owner
4
Insurance Business Magazine. Insurer Moves to Escape Sex Trafficking Suit Tied to Strip Club
5
PACER Monitor. Harrington et al v. Selective Insurance Company of America et al
6
Nebraska Attorney General. Billy Quinn Sentenced to Minimum 176.5 Years on 13 Charges Including Sex Trafficking of Minor
7
Nebraska Attorney General. Final Sentencing Related to Furnas County Human Trafficking Case
8
Nebraska.tv. Five Other Men Sentenced for Roles in Furnas County Sex Trafficking Ring
9
Valley Voice. Baumbach Sentenced in District Court
10
KETV. Omaha Strip Club Owner Sues the State, Hopes to Block the Bottle Club Bill
11
Lincoln Journal Star. Strip Club Plans Spark Review of Adult Entertainment Zoning
12
Omaha World-Herald. Hustler Club Liquor License Approved
13
KETV. Owner of Omaha Strip Club Gets Liquor License After Compromise
14
vLex. Harrington v. Strong, 363 F.Supp.3d 984
15
3 News Now. Club Omaha Owner Cited for Violating COVID-19 Health Order
16
GovInfo. Harrington et al v. City of Omaha et al, Case No. 8:20-cv-00412
17
GovInfo. Grove et al v. Meltech Inc. et al, Case No. 8:20-cv-00193