Nov 16, 2009 12:26 pm US/Eastern
Club Stays Open Until Commissioner Makes Decision
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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The Suite Ultra Lounge could be shut down for the foreseeable future.
CBS
A Mount Vernon club could spend the next year padlocked because neighbors call it a public nuisance.
Police have linked the club inside the Belvedere Hotel to numerous crimes.
Weijia Jiang has more on the club's future, following Monday's hearing.
Mount Vernon residents say the young patrons of the Suite Ultra Lounge Club drain police resources and make the community dangerous. Now the police department is one step closer to shutting it down.
As captured in home video, hundreds of teenagers spill onto the streets when the Suite Ultra Lounge Club closes for the night.
On Monday an independent examiner ruled it's a public nuisance.
"We can't go out past 10 o'clock at night. The whole neighborhood is in a siege," said one Mount Vernon homeowner.
In the past year, a stabbing, double shooting and two robberies involving guns took place outside the club.
The police commissioner will likely padlock the lounge for a year, a move many city leaders are urging. First, he will go over the examiner's ruling.
On Monday, dozens of outraged residents watched as she heard testimony from the owners and officers who patrol the area.
The owners of the club say they opened the club so young people could have a place to go at night. Now they, along with parents who bring their kids here, worry shutting it down could lead to even more violence.
"It's an outlet for the kids to get taken off the streets so they're not breaking into your home, my home, someone else's home. They have a chance to release their energy," says Louis Wood, owner of the Suite Ultra Lounge
"All these people are afraid of kids because of one or two bad apples," said John Gordon of Baltimore.
Those who support a padlock of the club say it only took one or two incidents to destroy a community's reputation. They hope a shutdown will help to rebuild it.
"The patrons from this club have been devastating to the businesses of Mount Vernon," said Jason Curtis of the Mount Vernon Association.
The judge's ruling gives the commissioner the option to padlock the club. He has not made an official decision. Until a decision is made, the lounge will remain open for business.
The city liquor board also attempted to shut down the club two months ago.
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