THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 13, 1996 TAG: 9606130365
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 68 lines
Portsmouth officials are seeking to permanently close The Showcase, an Airline Boulevard nightclub with a history of problems, after a weekend shooting incident in its parking lot.
City Attorney G. Timothy Oksman filed a motion in Circuit Court on Wednesday to have The Showcase closed and asked for a hearing with the state Alcohol Beverage Control board to have the club's alcohol license revoked.
No dates have been set either in court or by the ABC, Oksman said.
Oksman said that the city is also stepping up its efforts to prevent any further problems while The Showcase remains open. Police already regularly patrol the area when the club is open. Other departments will also be added to the oversight effort.
``We will utilize the police, fire department and building officials to ensure that nothing at The Showcase violates any existing laws until such time we can get a hearing from the court and ABC,'' Oksman said.
Residents of the Collinswood neighborhood, which is directly behind the club, have been working for nearly three years to shut The Showcase. They first complained about the noise coming from the club, which used to be called The Ebony Showcase.
They say the problems have since escalated to large crowds hanging out in the parking lot, fights and two shooting incidents.
Early Sunday morning, gunshots were fired into the air as patrons were leaving the club for the night. One woman reported to police that she was grazed by a bullet.
Neighbors turned out at Tuesday's City Council meeting demanding that the club be closed.
``Are you going to wait until somebody gets killed before the city does something?'' Rona McMillan asked the council.
McMillan said she lay on her bedroom floor in terror Saturday night listening to the gunshots.
``I dread when the weekend comes,'' she added. ``I have to run away from my house. We've been patient, we've been to council, we've done what the courts said. What is the solution? Do we have to wait for someone to die?''
Oksman told her then that he was already working on petitions to the court and the ABC board.
In addition to the moves to close the club, the city on Wednesday reduced the number of patrons permitted in the building to 750. It originally had been as high as 1,200 and had been reduced two other times - to 960, then to 860.
``These reductions are due to the continued maintenance of a public nuisance,'' Oksman said.
C. Kent Allison, an attorney for The Showcase, said Wednesday that the city is going too far.
``Clearly the incidents that took place over the weekend were regrettable,'' Allison said. ``If the Portsmouth Police Department can't prevent what happened, it's difficult for a private company to do so.
``The only prior incident (of gunfire) took place over the Labor Day weekend two years ago,'' he said. ``The city would like to paint The Showcase as a constant source of trouble. For the last two years, there have been no incidents like this.''
Last month, in lieu of a 90-day suspension of their liquor license, The Showcase agreed to pay a $5,000 fine and remain on ABC probation for a year. The ABC board had charged the owners with maintaining a noisy or disorderly establishment, being a nuisance to neighbors and letting the club be used as a meeting place for drug users.
The city is contending that Sunday's incident violated the terms of that probation and should result in the loss of the liquor license.
KEYWORDS: SHOOTING NIGHTCLUB by CNB