City Aims to Close Nightclub "Loophole"

Nightclub measure near

By CLIFTON ADCOCK World Staff Writer
2/20/2008

After another fatal shooting, the city wants to close a loophole that lets clubs stay open after hours. A City Council measure to tighten a loophole that some Tulsa nightclubs have used to stay open past 2 a.m. could be introduced within the next month.

The measure, which is still being considered by the Mayor's Office, would require a club to file paperwork with the city if a nonprofit organization is sponsoring an event at the club, Mayor Kathy Taylor said.

The action comes after a fatal shooting at The Hive, 216 N. Elgin Ave., this weekend.

After a Dec. 30 fatal shooting at Club UV -- another downtown club that was open after hours -- the City Council on Jan. 24 increased penalties for club operators who are caught staying open illegally after 2 a.m. from a $500 fine and/or 90 days in jail to a $1,200 fine and/or six months in jail.

The last shooting -- the third at a downtown Tulsa nightclub in a little more than a year and the second in less than two months -- occurred about 2:45 a.m. Saturday.

Police are investigating whether The Hive was open legally at the time, Taylor said.

Phillip Greer, 23, was shot to death outside The Hive by the club's owner, Jermaine Jones, and his brother, Larry Jones, police said.

The Jones brothers, who have concealed weapon licenses, told police that Greer had driven a sport utility vehicle toward a crowd of people, hitting one person, and that they were in fear for their lives when they fired the shots, police said.

Greer, who detectives said might have been involved in an altercation inside the bar before the shooting, was being driven to a hospital by two friends when police stopped them downtown, investigators said. Greer was pronounced dead at the scene. The Jones brothers were interviewed by detectives and released pending further investigation, police said.

The previous shootings occurred about 2 a.m. Dec. 30 inside Club UV at Second Street and Greenwood Avenue and last February at The Ministry of Sound, which later became Club UV. In the December shooting, Eric Bell, 21, was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest and later died. Durayco Demond Fox, 18, was arrested and charged with Bell's murder.

A year ago, a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old were shot at The Ministry of Sound. Both survived the shooting. Rahkeem Smith, 18, of Beggs was sentenced in the case last month to 10 years in prison. Club UV has not been open since the Dec. 30 shooting, police said.

Both clubs were advertised as venues for all ages, and both used a city ordinance that requires a nonprofit organization's sponsorship for clubs to stay open until 4 a.m., police said. Under city ordinances, all entertainment clubs must shut down by 2 a.m. unless later events are "sponsored or operated by a nonprofit political, educational, religious or fraternal organization."

The proposed amendment to the ordinance would require entertainment clubs that are using sponsorship from such organizations to file paperwork with the city to request a permit to stay open past 2 a.m., Taylor said.

The proposal is still being considered in a committee to make sure that legitimate events are not overly burdened by the amendment, the mayor said. "We want to make sure we're not overly onerous on legitimate religious, educational or fraternal events," Taylor said. Police are looking into whether The Hive had nonprofit sponsorship at the time of the shooting, she said.

Until last month, the club was using a sponsorship agreement with Vision Outreach Ministries to stay open past 2 a.m. The church's senior pastor, William Tisdale, said his church had held events at the club but had an oral agreement with the owners to terminate the contract about a year ago.

He said after the homicide at Club UV that he was unaware that The Hive was still using the contract to stay open past 2 a.m. When informed about the situation, Tisdale canceled the contract in writing, sending a copy of the letter to the Mayor's Office.

It was not clear what organization might have been sponsoring the club last weekend, Taylor said.

She said that although downtown is a relatively safe place, keeping a club open past 2 a.m. does not make for a good environment. "As my mother used to say, nothing good happens after midnight," Taylor said.

Clifton Adcock 581-8367
clifton.adcock@tulsaworld.com

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