A once popular, but now defunct, Brooklyn nightclub has launched a federal civil-rights lawsuit alleging that it was illegally targeted by the New York City Police Department for harassment and closure because of the minority makeup of its business owner and customers.

The bikini-clad dancer club, known as Club Love & Lust and formerly located near the Barclays Center, has filed a 23-page complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The suit claims that the NYPD engaged in a campaign of “unlawful selective enforcement” against it because of the race and/or national origin of the business owner, patrons and other stakeholders.

The lawsuit, which brings an equal protection-based charge of selective enforcement as well as claims directed at the NYPD for its alleged failures to train, supervise and discipline its police officers, is similar to an action levied in September against the city by the owners of another shuttered, minority-run club called Sin City.

The same plaintiffs-side civil-rights lawyer, Eric Sanders, himself a former 13-year NYPD officer, is litigating both lawsuits. And while there are differences in the allegations surrounding how the two clubs were forced out of business, Sanders claims that both clubs and other businesses citywide are being targeted and harassed with false violations, summonses, business inspections and other maneuvers because of their minority clientele and ownership.

In both lawsuits, NYPD officers are named as defendants as well as the state Liquor Authority. Sin City was a strip club, while Club Lust held a cabaret license and did not include stripping. Both clubs played hip hop music and catered to a crowd that often included celebrities such as 50 Cent, Odell Beckham Jr. and Drake.

At Club Lust, which closed in June, the singer Cardi B reportedly worked there as a dancer for a time and also has publicly complained about the city's treatment of the club.

In the Club Lust lawsuit, filed Dec. 10, the complaint says that the harassment and targeting of the nightspot included acts of retribution against it after its principal owner, Imran Jairam, refused to capitulate to bribery demands allegedly made by a local 72nd Precinct commander who wanted the club to purchase 11 round-trip tickets to Puerto Rico, worth $80,000, and a generator for a doctor there after Hurricane Maria had struck.

Both Club Lust and Sin City were ultimately pushed out of business, their suits allege, after the state Liquor Authority revoked their crucial alcohol licenses, and in both instances, the Liquor Authority allegedly deemed the clubs a police “focal point,” which Sanders says the authority used as a reason to pull the licenses.

Nicholas Paolucci, a Law Department spokesman, said on Thursday, while referring to both the Club Lust and Sin City actions, that his legal department and the NYPD ”have yet to see any of these claims substantiated.”

He added, “These are locations where the NYPD and other agencies take a variety of legitimate law enforcement action to address illegal activities and community concerns. We will defend against these claims accordingly.”

The state Liquor Authority could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday.

In November, after a Law Journal inquiry was made to the Law Department about the Sin City lawsuit and the broader allegations made by Sanders that the city is targeting numerous minority-run or frequented nightspots, the NYPD indicated that it will fight the Sin City action.

“These claims are without merit,” NYPD spokesman Phillip Walzak said in an email.

One difference between the Sin City lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, and the Club Lust suit, is that Sin City appears to have been the site of more criminal activity than Club Lust.

According to police statistics provided by the Law Department, in its time, Sin City was the scene of at least 11 undercover drug buys on nine occasions, and seven shootings between 2006 and 2014. There were also at least 85 unsealed arrests from 2008 onward, according to the statistics. And in a nuisance-abatement action lodged against it, Sin City agreed to pay a $100,000 penalty and consented to a permanent injunction against any violation of NYS Penal Law 220, the statistics showed.

In the Club Lust complaint, plaintiffs KB Venture Group d/b/a Club Love and Lust and Jairam allege that on or about April 24, 2018, defendant New York City, through Brooklyn Community Board No. 7, wrote in a letter that “my community was very concerned when this business opened several years ago as Jaguars 3 (Red Leopard) and, at the beginning, there were community complaints about the activities of the patrons and how the business operated. However, in the past four years, our office has received no complaints about the operation of the [different] business [Club Lust] nor the behavior of the patrons. In fact, we have record of only a few quality of life complaints in the immediate vicinity and none have identified Love and Lust as the progenitor of these complaints.”

The plaintiffs then alleged that, in conspiracy with state Liquor Authority investigator Charles Stravalle's position, it was still wrongly decided that the club was a “focal point” of the police and thus had to be closed.

Among its defendants, the complaint names 18 different 72nd Precinct officers, including Emmanuel Gonzalez, who it says is the commanding officer who demanded the bribery purchases.

According to the complaint, the NYPD and Stravalle's targeting went on for several years and included issuing 'false' violations, 'false' summonses, legally baseless stop and frisks, 'unlawful' business inspections and other unlawful selective enforcement activities.

The suit also says charges related to the cabaret law were used against the club to help deem it a police “focal point” even after the law had been repealed.

In November, Sanders said in an interview regarding Sin City, “It really boils down to the old philosophy of government power and how it is used, and that gets back to the fact that Sin City is no more of a problem than any other on-premise alcohol license-holder.”