Club owner sues Richland for $1.8 M. ‘We’re not a strip club’ verdicts prove, lawyer says
The owner of a Columbia-area business is suing Richland County for nearly $2 million because he says authorities lied about him running a strip club and forced him to shut down.
Richland County authorities, led by Sheriff Leon Lott, forced The Black Pearl nightclub on Broad River Road to close in late 2017. Lott said the club had become a nuisance because officers were frequently sent to the club, including one night in December 2017 when two people were shot to death in the parking lot.
Lott also said the business was an illegal strip club.
But The Black Pearl had signs displayed inside that said “no stripping, no drugs, no drinking while working,” said Marcus Whitlark, the lawyer for the business’ owner, Scott McMillan.
“Stripping was absolutely forbidden,” Whitlark said. “You’d be fired and thrown off the premises.”
For months, McMillan battled with Richland County officials over allegations that he and his attorney say were false.
Richland County and the sheriff’s department said Friday they could not comment on pending lawsuits.
“The allegations will be litigated in court,” sheriff’s spokesperson Capt. Maria Yturria said.
The Black Pearl opened in 2016. Lott said in late 2017 that the business was a nuisance from its opening and had operated without proper licensing. In February and March 2017, the county cited the business for running what the county said was an illegal strip club.
The sheriff’s department, along with the county’s zoning division, challenged The Black Pearl’s license in 2017, claiming the business was fronting as a restaurant and bar.
Dozens of bullets flew outside The Black Pearl at 3 a.m. on Dec. 20, 2017. Police said an argument about someone stealing money from a “stripper” escalated to a shootout in the parking lot. Two men were shot dead but the shooter was never charged because his actions were found to be self-defense.
At the time, Whitlark said the business wasn’t responsible for the incident and couldn’t have predicted or prevented the altercation.
The gunfight happened amid a string of violent incidents at Richland County clubs which prompted the sheriff’s department to try to close those businesses.
Lott began a crusade to shut down The Black Pearl after the shooting. Before the end of the month, deputies had slapped a stop work order on the building, effectively shuttering it. In February 2019, the county sought a court order to keep The Black Pearl from reopening, and the order was granted in April, according to legal filings.
McMillan’s lawsuit claims that officials based the nearly year-long efforts against his business on untrue “hearsay and rumors” and that the county systematically deprived him of an ability to run his legitimate establishment through shady legal actions.
Workers at The Black Pearl dressed like workers for Hooters or Twin Peaks, restaurant bars where women servers are fully clothed, Whitlark said. They repeatedly informed the county “we’re not a strip club.”
In 2017, when the business wanted its license renewed, McMillan, through Whitlark, asked the county in a letter for guidance on how it could be licensed like similar establishments. Whitlark told the county the business wanted to comply with all ordinances and asked what ordinances were being broken. The county never gave McMillan any answers, the suit claims.
When protesting the business’ permits, the sheriff’s department told the county’s licensing division that deputies had to respond to a substantial number of incidents at the business from 2016 to 2017, the suit says. But nearly half of those responses were caused by a malfunctioning alarm and were improperly reported as “criminal incidents” to licensing officials, according to the lawsuit.
While the suit does not specify the number of time deputies were called out, at a court hearing the sheriff’s department cited 24 incidents at The Black Pearl including assaults, larceny and other offenses.
Also, the county never issued a notice of license violations or gave the owner time to correct any issues, as legally required, Whitlark said.
McMillan challenged the February and March 2017 citations in court, and juries found him not guilty in 2019 of both charges, according to the suit and court documents provided by Whitlark.
Yet, when the county sought the 2019 order that halted The Black Pearl from reopening, officials never told the court about the juries’ decisions, according to the suit.
McMillan was not told about a hearing concerning permanently closing his business held before the 2019 order and wasn’t allowed to represent himself, the suit claims.
Throughout December 2017, Lott told the public the business was a strip club and said The Black Pearl was “operated on blood money” while zoning and licensing officials helped to label McMillan as “criminal” and “lying under oath,” the suit says. He was subjected to “public scorn.”
In the end, McMillan lost more than $2 million, according the suit. He’s suing for the lost revenue and for defamation of character as well as slander and libel for the accusations of being a strip club owner. He’s seeking at least $1.8 million.
A Marine who served nine years overseas, McMillan put his life savings into The Black Pearl, Whitlark said.
“He shouldn’t be treated this unfairly,” he said.
This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM.