Acknowledging no one had responsibility for checking if a nightclub where 21 people died was obeying a court order to stay closed, city officials said Tuesday that in future cases inspections might be beefed up and police alerted.
There were four city inspections of the E2 nightclub after a judge ordered the 2nd floor closed for a series of code violations in July, but inspectors visited during the day and found no evidence of occupancy, officials said.
City lawyers said they were pitted against a business bent on breaking the law. “Absent the city being at the property 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there is no way to ensure that these people are going to follow the law,” said Corporation Counsel Mara Georges.
The city filed a criminal contempt petition Tuesday asking a judge to fine the E2 nightclub and put owner Dwain Kyles in jail. By agreement in court, the nightclub and 1st-floor restaurant, Epitome, will remain closed indefinitely.
Mayor Richard Daley pledged action at a crowded news conference outside his City Hall office.
“We will be reviewing the way court orders are enforced to determine whether new procedures are needed to make sure people obey them,” he said. “We also will review the building and fire codes, as well as regulations regarding private security guards and any other areas of concern that our investigation uncovers.”
Under one possible reform, the Police Department would be alerted to court orders so enforcement would not be on the honor system, according to Law Department spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyle.
Officials also are considering changes in the timing and frequency of building inspections, Hoyle said.
“One of the issues we’re considering is whether [building] inspections have to be done in a different manner,” Hoyle said. “In this case, doing an inspection at an unusual time would have been helpful, but going into a 2-flat at three in the morning would be extremely invasive.”
Officials also revealed Tuesday the city was trying to revoke the liquor license shared by the nightclub and restaurant. The liquor license was suspended for five days starting Jan. 10 for serving an underage patron in 2001.
The city filed the Housing Court complaint after 11 code violations–including structural and fire-code problems–were uncovered in April 2002 during a routine annual inspection of 2347 S. Michigan Ave., Hoyle said. The most serious violation listed in the complaint alleged that new skyboxes in the club’s mezzanine level may have overburdened the building’s roof trusses.
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On July 19, Cook County Circuit Judge Daniel Lynch ordered the 2nd floor of the building not be occupied, court records show.
Inspectors visited the building again the day before each court hearing in August, September and October. Building code violations hadn’t been remedied, Hoyle said.
The next inspection wouldn’t have been done until a few days before a scheduled March 7 court hearing. By that time, the judge had ordered the club’s owners to submit all required plans and engineering reports, obtain city permits and show that code violations had been fixed.
The Police Department is not notified of such court orders and does not have a role in enforcing them. Police officers served notice of the order on the building owner, but they are detailed to the corporation counsel’s office and would not have notified department administrators of the action, police spokesman David Bayless said.
Police were frequently called to the club for disturbances, as recently as Jan. 17. But the officers were unaware of the court order, Police Supt. Terry Hillard said.
The officials’ admissions raised questions whether the loss of life could have been averted if city departments simply had communicated with one another.
“The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing,” said one Chicago building expert who asked not to be identified.
“I don’t understand how a [court] order was entered saying the 2nd floor isn’t to be used and how, for apparently four or five months, they were using it and nobody is doing anything about it,” said Ald. Bernard Stone (50th), chairman of the City Council’s Buildings Committee. “I think that is something that has to be investigated. There are 21 reasons for an investigation at this point.”
In Los Angeles, investigators are specifically dispatched to ensure that businesses or apartments are complying with court orders to close shop, said Eric Moses, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office.
“If no action is taken, then we will fence in or padlock a structure, but only after the lawyers for the owners have been notified,” he said.
Rev. Paul Jakes, who is running against Daley for mayor, asserted that “the U.S. attorney [should] investigate this tragedy because the city of Chicago cannot investigate itself.”
Rev. Jesse Jackson on Monday called on Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan to appoint an independent inquiry board. In a statement later Tuesday, Madigan said she told Cook County State’s Atty. Richard Devine and various city officials she is “ready and willing to provide any assistance requested to ensure that this case is thoroughly investigated.”
Despite his willingness to consider procedural reforms, Daley and top aides focused blame on Le Mirage Inc., the company that owns E2 and Epitome.
“When a court issues an order against you, it is your responsibility to follow that order,” the mayor asserted. “You don’t have the right to disobey that order until someone catches you or until a disaster happens, as it did Monday morning.”
Currently, the city relies on business owners to heed court orders, and “there was nothing we could have done” to prevent the catastrophe, Georges said.
If the city had padlocked the club’s door, “they would have cut a padlock,” she said. “If the city had put a sign on the door, they would have cut down the sign. Obviously, these people were intent on breaking the law.”
Through his lawyer, club owner Dwain Kyles on Tuesday repeated his claim that the nightclub had permission to use the 2nd floor of the building, but not the mezzanine-level “V.I.P.” rooms.
Accompanied by his lawyer, Andre Grant, Kyles went to the corporation counsel’s office Tuesday afternoon to pick up a summons for the criminal contempt charges filed against him. A hearing date has not been set in the case.
“To say we violated the court order is just not true. It’s not true,” Grant said. “And I think what’s hurting and outraging Mr. Kyles the most is that the city knows that it’s not true. And we can prove it.”
Grant refused to provide or even describe the alleged agreement, saying only it is a written document and he would introduce it in court.
Another Le Mirage attorney, Thomas Royce, also said after court Tuesday that the court docket sheet dated July 19 says, “Mirage will not occupy 2nd-floor VIP rooms.” The docket sheet dated Sept. 6 also refers to the “2nd fl. VIP.”
However, the judge’s order from Sept. 6 specifies both the “2nd floor and mezzanine.”
Asked to clarify what the handwriting on the docket sheet meant, Judge Lynch declined to comment Tuesday to a reporter. Georges said the court order governs the case, not the docket.
“Certainly there are some words in the docket that would suggest the VIP area,” Georges said. “But the order speaks for itself. The order is very clear. And the order is what governs–should govern–the conduct of the parties here. And it is the order that these defendants violated time and time again.”
At the court hearing, city building inspector Julio Montilla testified the roof and walls of the building were in danger of failing as a result of a crack in a truss. It was then agreed to close the restaurant and nightclub.
After court, Georges told reporters she was pushing for jail time in the case “because this was a willful disregard of a court order.”
On another front, officials said they continue to seek action against Le Mirage with yet another city entity, the Local Liquor Control Commission.
In a complaint filed July 11, the Daley administration charged Le Mirage is ineligible for a license because Calvin Hollins, an ex-felon, has an interest in the operation. City ordinance prevents ex-felons from holding liquor licenses. The city is asking the commission to revoke the license.
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Le Mirage also was hit with a 5-day license suspension, which included closing the restaurant, that began Jan. 10 after allegedly serving alcohol to a minor. It subsequently was ticketed by police after Central District Commander John Risley went to the restaurant on Jan. 10 and found lunch was being served.
Police were “wrapping up” their interviews of witnesses Tuesday night, Bayless said. Detectives also were reviewing video-surveillance tapes from the nightclub.
Security guards used pepper spray after a fight broke out in the crowded E2, producing a panicked attempt to flee. Those who died were crushed as they sought to exit the building.
Hillard said one guard who has been interviewed admitted using pepper spray, prompting Stone to call for an ordinance regulating the use of that chemical irritant and similar agents.
“I don’t think there is any question we have to take some action about the use of pepper spray or Mace within closed, confined quarters with large gatherings of people,” he said.