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Club hit with a $3,000 city fine
By JON WILSON © St. Petersburg Times, published November 12, 2000 ST. PETERSBURG -- A city board fined a Central Avenue nightclub $3,000 last week and a lawyer for the club said the decision also could affect other entertainment spots. After an eight-hour hearing Wednesday, the Nuisance Abatement Board levied the fine against Club 1901 owners Victor and Lorraine Ronchetti. Also liable are the corporations that own or lease the building at 1901 Central Ave., said Sherman Smith, the Police Department's lawyer. The board also is requiring the Ronchettis or the building owners to take measures to prevent illegal activity at the club, such as installing video cameras, screening employees and searching customers for drugs. An appeal of the fine and sanctions "is a very big possibility," said David Neville, a lawyer for the club. "This is a precedent-setting decision by the Nuisance Abatement Board and it increases greatly the power of the Police Department," Neville said. He said the decision could result in selective enforcement at every bar in the city. During testimony Wednesday, undercover detectives, concealed behind a screen to protect their identities, and uniformed officers told board members what they had seen during a six-month investigation focusing on Club 1901. In testimony lasting nearly six hours, police described purchases of narcotics in addition to brawling by youngsters leaving the bar on the club's "teen nights" late last spring. Police cited about 30 instances of illegal activity, and the board ultimately considered 17 in making its decision. "It was virtually an open-air drug market," said one undercover detective. Uniformed police beefed up their presence at the club earlier this year after the teen nights began generating large, unruly crowds outside after closing time. Some arrests were made as a result of the investigations, but arrests and convictions are not necessary for a property to be declared a nuisance under city codes. Board members, who are appointed community members serving without pay, have only to decide that criminal activity has occurred twice during a six-month period. Lawyers defended the club vigorously. Neville and colleague Douglas Barnard said police selectively targeted Club 1901 for strict enforcement. They argued that police had not presented enough evidence to warrant a nuisance designation, that the city had worked in concert with the club's landlords to force the club to close and that the Ronchettis had worked to keep drugs out of the club. Victor Ronchetti testified that he turned over to police a bag of narcotics the club's security staff had taken from customers. The club originally opened as the Platinum Vault, a rave club, in January 1999. The city ordered it closed after police reported drug overdoses and more than 60 drug-related arrests. It reopened in August 1999 as Club 1901, featuring a more traditional nightclub format. The nuisance case is complicated by litigation about the property between the Ronchettis and Central Executive II, the corporation that owns the Club 1901 building. Another corporation, REH South, holds the property's master lease and in turn subleased to the Ronchettis. "This is an unusual nuisance abatement case," said lawyer Bill Walker, who represents Central Executive and REH South. "You have a landlord and tenant who've been fighting in court for two years."
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