Sgt. Brett Parson, commander of the D.C. police Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit, says he witnessed a simulated sex act at The Edge nightclub.
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LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Friday, September 22, 2006
The city’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on Sept. 13 suspended the liquor license for the Southeast D.C. gay nightclub Edge-Wet for 45 days and fined the club $3,500 for 12 separate incidents that violate the city’s liquor law.
A four-page charging document says the alleged incidents included two non-fatal stabbings inside the club and several fights inside and on the street outside that involved customers wielding pipes and sticks, the document says. It says the incidents occurred between Oct. 6, 2005 and Jan. 25, 2006.
The document says another incident involved an alleged sexual act between a nude male dancer and a customer, and that the incident was observed and reported by Sgt. Brett Parson, commander of the D.C. police Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit.
Edge-Wet closed its doors on Sept. 9, becoming the last of eight gay entertainment businesses in the Southeast gay club zone to be displaced due to real estate development associated with the construction of a new baseball stadium.
Owners of the other clubs have said they are searching for new locations but have declined to say whether they have found new properties or when they plan to reopen.
The license suspension for Edge-Wet took effect Sept. 15, according to ABC Board general counsel Fred Musally.
Edge-Wet attorney James O’Day said the club plans to reopen at an as yet to be determined location after the suspension period expires.
Employees said the club was being displaced like the other clubs due to stadium-related development, but said they expected it to stay open until at least Sept. 23. They said they were surprised when it closed on Sept. 9.
Parson, who investigated several of the incidents, said all of the alleged violations occurred in the Edge section of the club. Parson said many of the alleged violations occurred on nights when the Edge clientele consisted mostly of lesbians. He said employees frequently called police to help break up fights.
Edge-Wet operated in a converted warehouse building at 52-56 L St., S.E. The two venues were run separately and had separate entrances but shared the same liquor license. Records with the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration list Capitol Hill Cabaret, Inc. as the owner of the club. Denver, Colo., businessman Martin Chernoff and D.C. businessman Ron Hunt have identified themselves as the principal owners of the company. Chernoff said he is semi-retired and has authorized Hunt to operate the club.
O’Day said Hunt agreed to the 45-day license suspension and fine as part of a settlement with the ABC Board. O’Day said Hunt explained to the board that the problems occurred during a three-month period when new, inexperienced managers were in charge of the Edge.
“Once he was apprised of it, he changed his management and he spent more time there himself,” O’Day said. “So he cleaned out the staff and he’s gotten proven people in there now. And he’ll have a better staff when he reopens. And he will reopen,” O’Day said.
According to the charging document, one of the alleged violations included the admission of a “runaway16-year-old girl” at the Edge after the staff allegedly did not check for identification to determine her age.
The charging document says the club also violated liquor law provisions by failing to take steps to prevent fights at the Edge that led to two separate deaths in locations several miles away from the club.
In one instance, a fight that broke out inside the club between two lesbians prompted one to shoot the other to death after the two drove several miles away to a location in Anacostia, the charging document says. In another incident, the charging document says the club was responsible for failing to prevent a fight on the premises that led to a car chase between two groups of customers. One of the customers died in a crash that resulted from the chase, the charging document says.
Although the Wet section of the club featured male nude dancing as its main form of entertainment, the incident involving alleged sexual contact between a nude dancer and a customer took place at the Edge, during one of the occasional nights when the Edge also provided nude dance entertainment, Parson said.
The charging document states, “On Friday, Nov. 25, 2005, Sgt. Brett Parson of the Metropolitan Police Department was at the establishment investigating a fight outside the establishment on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2005 when he observed a nude dancer making sexual contact with a patron while performing on stage.”
The charging document provides no further details about the alleged sexual contact other than to say the ABC Board took action against Edge-Wet over the alleged activity under “D.C. Official Code 22-3001 (2001) and D.C. Official Code 25-823 (4) (2002).”
Parson told the Blade that the dancer in question was dancing nude on a platform next to a dance floor used by customers and invited a male customer to join him on the platform. According to Parson, the dancer positioned himself behind the customer, who was fully clothed, and began thrusting his genitals against the customer’s buttocks in what Person called a performance of simulated anal intercourse.
“Simulating anal intercourse on a stage — that’s just over the top,” said Parson.
Parson said he responded by seeking out a manager to direct the dancer and customer to stop what they were doing. By the time the manger arrived, the dancer and customer had stopped their interaction on their own, Parson said.
The manager’s absence from the club during the time Parson observed the alleged sexual activity prompted the ABC Board to charge Edge-Wet with yet another violation — the failure to have a licensed manager on duty on the premises during the hours such an establishment is open.
Parson said that due to recent changes in the city’s laws and regulations pertaining to nude dance performances at establishments licensed to serve liquor, he was uncertain about which statutes the dancer and customer may have violated. He said he responded by submitting a report about the incident to the ABC Board.
“I decided to let the board decide how to handle it,” he said. “If they bumped it back to me, I would have decided how to deal with it. But they kept it, so I assume they had legal jurisdiction,” Parson said.
Jeff Coudriet, operations manager for the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, which has jurisdiction over the ABC Board, said the D.C. Council removed ABRA and the ABC Board’s jurisdiction over enforcing all aspects of sexual performances, including simulated sexual acts, in establishments that serve liquor. Coudriet said new regulations removing ABRA and the board from regulating sexual performances took effect Sept. 30, 2004.
The Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance and civil liberties and theater advocacy groups had called on the Council to make the change, saying restrictions on dance performances violated First Amendment rights of freedom of expression.
“The job of the ABC Board is to regulate the sale of alcohol, not enforce their own code of morality,” Bob Summersgill, GLAA treasurer, said in testimony before the Council on Nov. 19, 2003.
At the time the Council approved the changes, city officials said it would be up to the D.C. police department to use its discretion to enforce other existing laws, such as those that ban lewd or obscene acts, in cases of alleged sexual activity at bars or nightclubs.
Coudriet said the ABC Board appears to have cited Edge-Wet for the alleged sexual act reported by Parson based on other regulations that prohibit nude performers from coming into close contact with customers.
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