Jul 29, 2005   | COMMENTS     

An attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice and her husband, a prominent bio-ethicist with the National Institutes of Health, startled customers and employees of D.C.’s gay Latino dance party Fuego last month when they began videotaping and photographing customers entering and leaving the event.

DOJ lawyer Christina Parascandola and NIH researcher Mark Parascandola — while off duty and acting as private citizens — photographed and videotaped people arriving and leaving the U Street, N.W., restaurant and lounge Cada Vez, which hosts the Fuego event, to document possible liquor law violations, Mark Parascandola said.

Parascandola said he and his wife had no intention of offending the mostly gay Latino customers during the picture-taking excursions they conducted on four successive Saturday evenings beginning in the middle of June. But Cada Vez manager Charles Zhou said the gay people who patronize the Fuego event each week considered the photo surveillance “an outrageous form of intimidation.”

“The customers were furious, and many were scared,” Zhou said. He said some of the Fuego customers are citizens of Latin American countries who may work for international organizations where they are not openly gay.

Lisbeth Meléndez Rivera, an official with the National Latino Coalition for Justice, a gay group, called the action by the Parascandolas a form of intimidation that is often used to target undocumented immigrants.

“It is homophobic and xenophobic,” she said.

According to Zhou, the Parascandolas were accompanied in their picture-taking sessions by Ramon Estrada, a gay member of the Dupont Advisory Neighborhood Commission, and his domestic partner, Elwyn Ferris. The couple has filed papers opposing the Cada Vez license renewal. Estrada has charged that Cada Vez is operating as a nightclub disguised as a restaurant.

Zhou has said the establishment is in full compliance with the law, which allows it to provide dancing and entertainment as long as at least 45 percent of its revenue comes from the sale of food.

In a comment made after the Blade print edition went to press, Estrada said the videotaping was part of the information-gathering phase of the protest against the Cada Vez license.

Those protesting the license "have the right to collect information about the operation of the business, including when they close and crowd management," he said. "So they are entitled to videotape. In fact, under advice of legal counsel, that's what they are doing."

Mark Parascandola said most of the photos and video footage he and his wife took are “crowd shots” that did not zero in on individual people. Among other things, the two wanted to document the size of the crowd leaving Cada Vez at closing time and the time it took for the crowd to disperse, Parascandola said.

Zhou said Parascandola often stood on the sidewalk in front of Cada Vez, where he photographed and videotaped customers at a distance of 10 feet or less while using an illuminating device similar to a floodlight.

“They certainly were not trying to be inconspicuous,” Zhou said. “It was an in-your-face type of thing.”

Liquor license at issue
The Parascandolas are part of at least three “groups of five” that have filed protests with the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board opposing the renewal of Cada Vez’s liquor license on grounds that the establishment draws large nighttime crowds that disturb the neighborhood.

Zhou disputes these claims, saying his customers, especially the gay Latino customers, are respectful of nearby residents and have not caused neighborhood problems. Among the groups challenging the Cada Vez license are the Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission, the Dupont Circle Citizens Association, and at least three “groups of five,” including the Parascandolas’ group.

Zhou said Christina Parascandola entered Cada Vez on at least one occasion with a small still camera and began taking photos of the gay Latino customers on or near the dance floor.

According to a Justice Department directory, Christina Parascandola works as an attorney for the DOJ’s Environment & Natural Resources Division. The NIH Web site includes extensive information about Mark Parascandola’s work as a bio-ethicist, science historian, and author of a wide range of scientific papers and articles.

He currently works on the staff of the National Cancer Institute’s Tobacco Control Research Branch.

“I’m just amazed that two people with such a prominent background would spend so much of their time hanging out on the street at night bothering our customers,” said Zhou.

Mark Parascandola declined to comment on his job other than to say he “works for the government.” Christina Parascandola could not be reached for comment by press time.

Zhou ...