13Investigates: Ex-dancer at Shenanigans talks about drugging, robbing customers in lawsuit
A former dancer at Shenanigans Gentlemen’s Club says she was forced to drug, steal and have sex with customers.
“I don’t think words can describe how mortifying a situation like that is,” she said.
It’s all detailed in a shocking lawsuit 13Investigates first told you about last week.
NewsChannel 13’s Tessa Bentulan spoke with the dancer, who is not being identified and her face and voice has been disguised for the story.
She pulls back the curtain to reveal the torture she says she endured during her 11 months working at the club in Colonie.
The eight-page lawsuit the dancer recently filed said she started working at Shenanigans Gentlemen’s Club when she was only a teenager.
Immediately, she said she was forced to sell a minimum of $500 worth of cocaine each day.
Soon after that, she claims she was forced to drug customers and then rob them.
She said it was all under the direction of Shenanigans owner Robert Savoca and General Manager Luiggi Canessa, who are both named in the civil lawsuit.
She notes customers were drugged using a perfume bottle filled with chloroform. She would put it on herself, and the customers would be knocked out for about 30 minutes.
“Once they were knocked out, it would then turn into a robbery,” he said.
The former dancer said Canessa worked with her to commit the crime.
“It was Luiggi giving me instructions because on the cameras he could see where the customers put their wallet, like where their pants were, their socks were and their jackets, or the passcode to their phone so we could electronically pay ourselves and pay Luiggi and pay Robert,” she said.
Canessa was arrested and charged earlier this year, accused of selling meth to an undercover officer. He remains behind bars during the FBI’s investigation.
NewsChannel 13 is waiting for a response from Canessa’s lawyers.
His criminal defense attorney, Lee Kindlon, said he does not represent him in this civil case and declined to comment.
Court documents state the FBI is currently investigating Canessa for drug trafficking, sex trafficking and wire fraud.
These are the same claims the dancer makes in the civil lawsuit.
She said she did not want to drug customers – but it was better than being forced to sleep with them, which she said happened countless times.
The lawsuit states she worked afterhours at the club and was then “assigned” eight to ten customers after she was off the clock.
“Things were either being done in the club or in the customers houses, or in various motels, hotels and businesses all around here,” she said.
The dancer said Canessa had full control of her after she claims he forced her to move into his third-floor apartment – less than 300 feet from Shenanigans.
“And that’s when my freedom was taken away.”
She said she always said no.
“Now it’s like, ‘if you said no, why did it happen?’ It’s because of the violence that I endured every day. I was handcuffed in a basement with a gun to my head every night, and I was being injected with drugs while I was sleeping.”
“I got beat every day. Every day,” she added.
By March of this year – she’d had enough and fired back at Canessa while they were driving to see a customer.
The dancer says Canessa got aggressive.
“He pushed me out of a car.”
Find out how the dancer got away and out of the situation by watching that part of the story beginning Monday at 5 a.m. on NewsChannel 13 and online.