"The owner of an Easton night club was charged early today with hindering and obstructing a police investigation into a stabbing last month.
Police say Kirtikuma Patel, 46, owner of Club Beyond, instructed employees to clean up blood and other evidence after a customer was stabbed in the neck in the club's bathroom on Oct. 31. Patel was arrested at the club shortly after midnight and later arraigned.
A bar patron and an employee were arrested that night and also face obstruction of justice charges.
Easton Mayor Sal Panto said he, the Northampton County district attorney's office and city code inspectors met about ten days ago to discuss a strategy to address what Panto calls a "problem" night club.
"It's the only downtown night club giving us problems, and if it continues, we are shutting it down," said Panto, noting that the owner can expect increased inspections over the next several months.
Police, the district attorney's office, state Liquor Control Board officials and city inspectors converged on the night club last night -- it was hosting a highly publicized event -- to make the arrests and conduct inspections.
"We knew there would be a lot of people there and we wanted to show them that this is not a safe place to be," said Panto. "We wanted to take him out in front of everybody."
Panto said he was not sure whether city inspectors issued any fines.
Patel was not immediately available for comment.
Another man was arrested last night, police said.
Joe Taylor, 33, works as a bouncer at the club and on Oct. 18 police say he slammed a woman's face to the floor and dragged her out of the club.
Police charged him with simple assault and harassment."
- THE MORNING CALL, 2009
It looks like this club is going the same route the Down Low did in Allentown, PA. I was there on the night that it was, unexpectedly, closed down. I am unsure what the answer is, but I don't know where Easton and the surrounding towns expect the Urban adults to go who enjoy the hip hop/R&B vibe. We don't have anything against DRINKY'S, MOTHER'S, Maingate, No Name and other nightspots in the surrounding area, but it's NOT the same. I understand that the club owner has to pay for his past transgressions, but why wait until people have PAID their hard earned money for an event and close it down just to make an example out of him? Who suffered the most? If the place is said to be unsafe, why not close it down EARLIER in the week BEFORE it opens, people are placed in harms way, and money is exchanged?
There were three things that were, definitely, accomplished last night: the notoriety of the club was established which will BRING more people to it in the future, a city leader has shown he is more interested in harassing and shutting down a viable business instead of working, guiding, and cooperating with it to find the root of the problem and eliminate it; and once again, the URBAN COMMUNITY was shown there is little regard for "their" type of crowd in the area.
Alfonso Todd
www.lehighvalleyflavor.piczo.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
it seems to me there were two victims on Oct. 31, the person who got stabbed and the club owner. unless they threw away a knife, i hardly see blood as crucial evidence. that aside, the theatrical arrest of the owner, two weeks later, appears more political than criminal in motivation
I agree Mike and politics, not the people, are what I, personally, feel is adding to the downfall of the Lehigh Valley...
All Politics is Local
Post a Comment