How many must die before laws are toughened on dangerous Richland nightclubs?

Police and neighbors are frustrated that some Richland County nightclubs are causing problems that include people dying violently, yet the clubs remain open.

This fall, three people have been killed separately at Black Pearl and Mi Casita, bars northwest of Columbia and in the northeast region of Richland County, respectively. Two people were killed early Wednesday in a shooting outside Black Pearl.

“The community is up in arms about this,” Sheriff Leon Lott said last week, referring to neighborhoods near the clubs. “They hold me accountable (asking), ‘Why haven’t you closed them?’ ”

Help might be on the way. One county councilman, Jim Manning, said he has asked the county attorney to draft an ordinance that would strengthen Lott’s hand. Council might take it up in February, Manning said.

The county lacks strong enough laws to allow deputies to quickly padlock dangerous clubs that attract crime and threaten public safety of residents who live nearby, the sheriff said.

He wants the same authority that Columbia police Chief Skip Holbrook exercised in September when he closed the Empire Supper Club in the Vista after eight people were shot.

Under city ordinances, Holbrook can declare a business a nuisance and close it. The business owner can then appeal to Holbrook and then city management before going to court. Under county laws, Lott must ask the courts to close a business, but that process may be prolonged as the owner appeals. All the while, the business stays open.

“We don’t have an effective mechanism at this time,” Lott said. The sheriff’s department has asked county officials repeatedly to write tougher laws, he said.

Current county laws are too cumbersome to address problems quickly, Lott said. Going after a club’s liquor license starts with the State Law Enforcement Division, not the sheriff’s department, and SLED’s actions can be appealed to a judge.

All those attempts go largely unnoticed, he said.

“This is nothing new,” Lott said of Wednesday’s slayings outside Black Pearl on Broad River Road. “But it doesn’t get attention until what happened the other night – people get killed.”

Ron Huff, president of the Greater Woodfield Community Association near Mi Casita on Decker Boulevard, is among residents who are frustrated by what they consider a dangerous strip club.

“How many people have to get killed at this sexually oriented business that is in my neighborhood before anyone other than my neighborhood association does anything about it?” Huff asked.

In October, a man died after he was run over in the club’s parking lot after an incident at the club. A woman has been charged with murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

Huff said he’s learned there is little that neighbors can do other than complain and bring attention to the problem. Huff said he went to the club after neighbors complained to him.

“It’s not a restaurant at all,” he said. “It’s a strip club. I know this is a moral hazard, and it is a safety hazard.”

Huff said Mi Casita, as a strip club, violates county business license and zoning laws. The club is too close to a church and a day care center.

“It appears to have been running for more than two years,” he said. “And no one has done anything about it.”

Lott agreed that Mia Casita is really a strip club.

A woman who answered the phone Friday at Mi Casita said she runs the club. When a reporter asked for her response to complaints, she said, “I’m very busy. You can call me another time.” She immediately hung up the phone.

Mark Whitlark, the attorney who represents the owner of Black Pearl, said the club is being held responsible for violence it could not have anticipated or prevented.

“What is it we could do about this?” Whitlark asked about the two homicides. “We didn’t spark this.”

Black Pearl has closed voluntarily for a while for an internal examination of what happened, he said. But Richland County officials are asking a judge to shutter the club, which, according to deputies, has featured strippers. Deputies have been called to the club 32 times this year for a range of complaints, the sheriff’s department said.

It takes a long time to compile evidence and get a case into court, Lott said. Club owners are willing to spend the time and money because of how much money they make while they fight closures.

“These places know to draw it out,” the sheriff said. “They appeal and then they stay open. That is a very minimal cost of doing business.”

He cites the closures of Heartbreaks, a Bush River Road strip club, and nearby Thee Whiskey Tavern, on Zimalcrest Drive, as examples.

“It took us years to get those done,” Lott said.

This story was originally published December 24, 2017 at 10:31 AM with the headline "How many must die before laws are toughened on dangerous Richland nightclubs?."