COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – South Carolina’s high court says an exotic dancer who was shot at a Columbia nightclub is entitled to workers’ compensation benefits for her injury.
The State newspaper reports that the Supreme Court made that ruling Wednesday in the case of LeAndra Lewis.
The court said Lewis was an employee of the Boom Boom Room Studio 54, not an independent contractor. That distinction makes her eligible to receive workers’ compensation benefits.
The justices did not set an amount Lewis should be paid for injuries from the 2008 shooting, sending that question back to the Court of Appeals.
Court records show a stray bullet struck Lewis in the abdomen after a fight broke out at the club, harming her organs and resulting in loss of a kidney.
