It definitely wasn’t part of the regular show at the Skylark Lounge. In the end, a dancer held a towel to her face to stop the bleeding. Perhaps over a bag, two strippers had tussled in the darkly lit establishment at 1943 New York Avenue NE, on Oct. 12. According toaccounts, cops were summoned when one dancer “smashed” the other in the face with a champagne glass, leaving a laceration.

As Alcoholic Beverage Control Board members probed the incident on Wednesday, one of the things that became clear was that a badge might have gotten a guy backstage at the strip joint. An inebriated man accompanying one of the dancers involved in the fight might have been posing as a cop. “We got some police that come through,” Skylark floor-manager Tyrone Rogers said when questioned by the board. Rogers, a tall man with a football player’s shoulders, hunched forward as the board pushed him for details. Rogers explained that cops sometimes come into the club to check on things. That’s why the man was allowed in the back area of the Skylark, along with one of its off-duty dancers (a pretty, voluminously-haired stripper known as Ice). When the bartender tried to stop the man from going into the back with Ice, he flashed a badge.

While the man didn’t make things difficult by participating in the fight that erupted, afterward, he insisted Skylark not call 911, according to Rogers. He was a cop, he said. He would handle it. Someone called anyway. Later, the real cops discovered that the man was actually a bail bondsman. Board members seemed worried about the fact that the bondsman so easily gained access to the off-limits portion of Skylark. Apparently, you can buy a bail bonds agent badge for about 30 bucks.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the board recommended the Office of Attorney General schedule a show-cause hearing, which means Skylark could end up facing penalties for the row. Stephen O’Brien, Skylark’s attorney, was on hand for the hearing and spoke with City Desk. “We believe that Skylark acted appropriately in response to an unfortunate incident,” he says.