Richland moves to force closure of nightclub where two were killed, attorney says
Richland County on Thursday told the owner of the Black Pearl nightclub, where two men died in a shootout, it is going to court to try to close the club as a nuisance, the attorney for the club said.
A hearing in Richland County Circuit Court is set for Jan. 19, said Marc Whitlark, who represents the club and its owner, Scott McMillan.
On Wednesday about 3 a.m., two men were shot to death outside the business that critics call a strip club. No one has been charged in the deaths of Torance Lamar Peoples, 26, and Trevonne Judge, 23.
The county’s move comes as Whitlark and McMillan announced earlier Thursday that they are voluntarily shuttering the club while an internal review is done.
Whitlark said he received an email from the county attorney’s office that it would seek a temporary restraining order. He expects the basis of the county’s legal action will be that Black Pearl has become a public nuisance.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department contended in a business license appeal hearing in June that the Broad River Road club has operated illegally as a strip club. Its license was for a bar.
The location of strip clubs is more strictly regulated than bars under county rules that govern licenses. Deputies were called to the club 32 times so far this year, sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Curtis Wilson has said.
The appeal aboard agreed with the sheriff’s department and the county’s decision to refuse the club’s business license, according to records of the June 28 administrative hearing.
Whitlark said the club and McMillan are being held responsible for a shooting it could not have foreseen.
“How are we supposed to stop something that started instantaneously when the place was closing down,” the attorney said. “There was nothing that happened that showed this was going to happen.
“He’s getting picked on,” Whitlark said of McMillan.
This story was originally published December 21, 2017 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Richland moves to force closure of nightclub where two were killed, attorney says."