Does Club in Cicilline’s Building Get Preferential Treatment?
Tuesday, September 06, 2016
The Vault Lounge on Federal Hill, located in a building formerly owned by Congressman David Cicilline, and now by his brother John, got a total of a ten day closure by the Providence Board of Licenses (BOL) for a shooting outside the club in June.
Now, Aqua Lounge on Broad Street is facing a thirty day closure after an August shooting on its premises — and the city solicitor is looking to pull its license altogether.
“There is absolutely no thought as to how [the board] assesses penalties, there are no factors that make it worse or better,” said Board of Licenses member Johanna Harris, who had previously served as Board Chair. “Vault lied about the location of the shooter. That's an intrinsically bad thing. You'd think it would be closed.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTVault, which is in the building now solely owned by lawyer John Cicilline on Atwells Avenue, had been closed temporarily for five days following the incident on June 21 in which a patron, who was escorted out of the club by bouncers, came back with a gun and shot a bystander outside.
Board Chair and Cicilline ally State Senator Juan Pichardo had initially overruled the city’s recommendation to close Vault for ten days. However, after the BOL learned the bouncer had lied, saying he was told by management to say the shooter had not been in the club, Vault was shut for an additional five days from July 27 to July 31.
Meanwhile, Aqua, which is located on Broad Street, has been closed since August 15, when a shooting took place inside the club that saw a patron fire a shot, which bounced off the ceiling and hit another patron. Aqua is due before the BOL again this week, where lawyer Nick Hemond said the establishment could be facing a thirty day closure in total — and a possible license revocation.
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Hemond said he did not necessarily disagree with a penalty of thirty days, but said if the city made a move to pull the license, that he would appeal.
“I think when you have a shooting like this, you're looking at a long closure. Back in in April, there was an incident around Aqua where there was a guy who had been involved in a fight in the club who came back with a gun and fired shots, that got a 72 hour closure,” said Hemond.
“As for this past incident, there was a gun inside, we didn't deny it. Aqua is a lounge, not a club, it doesn’t have a [nightclub] license. It basically has the same security requirements as an Applebees,” said Hemond. “They had security that night with the crowd, [owner] Jesus Titin isn’t stupid -- but he found out after that two of the security guards worked with someone in the party and didn’t pat [the suspect] down.”
“I think folks respect what Jesus has done on Broad Street, and he was rewarded with 3 AM closing time. He’s got a good relationship with public safety. We have a new security plan, we have a new security staff, after we had tried security and it didn't work. He's been in business 13 years. This is not a revocation case,” said Hemond.
“As for Vault, yes [they] were both shootings, but that one happened outside at Vault, I think they’re two different cases altogether,” said Hemond. “I think Joanna Harris would have closed them both. She comes in with her mind already made up -- I think the board has tried to come up with the right penalties in each case.”
Related Slideshow: Providence Clubs and Reports of Crime and Violence - 2016
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