PANAMA CITY, Fla. - A former exotic dancer received two years of house arrest for knocking out another stripper's tooth with her high-heel shoes, but her lawyer acknowledged any more trouble would land her behind bars.
Now a nursing student, Kimi Aushabranner, 30, received a five-year suspended sentence Monday. Circuit Judge Clinton Foster ordered her to spend the first two years under community control and the remaining three on probation.
She also faces restitution of about $13,000 for the victim's medical expenses and 300 hours of community service, although Foster said he would waive the latter if she remains in school.
A jury last month convicted her of felony battery for kicking out one of Charlotte Barber's teeth and loosening another with her 6-inch heels. It happened during a fight on Nov. 22, 1997 at the Show N' Tail, a lounge in nearby Panama City Beach.
Aushabranner's lawyer, Waylon Graham, told Foster the sentence would let her to get on with her new career goals but she understood she won't get any more chances.
"If she screws this up there won't be no hemming and hawing at the next sentencing, it's just five years" in prison, Graham said.
Aushabranner was not arrested until almost four years after the fight. A jury last year acquitted her sister, Ginger Aushabranner, also a dancer, for her involvement.
Witnesses said it began when a bartender told Kimi Aushabranner to leave because she had broken a club rule. She threw a drink on the bartender and the sisters then exchanged words with Barber who was knocked off her own 6-inch heels during the melee, witnesses said.
