Tag: Amy Weirich

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Opinion

“Upscale Freakism”

Say this for Shelby County district attorney Amy Weirich: She doesn’t pull her punches. Or telegraph them.

After a seven-month investigation and a quick heads-up to the news media, the DA and Tennessee drug agents hit Beale Street where and when it hurts last week. They closed the highest-grossing club with the highest-profile owner in the middle of the Memphis In May barbecue contest and a week before the Grizzlies play San Antonio in the NBA Playoffs next door at FedExForum.

“It was like closing Macy’s two weeks before Christmas,” said attorney Ted Hansom, who represents Club 152 owners Charlie Ryan, Bud Chittom, and Kevin Kane, the head of the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Club 152 is near the western gateway to the Beale Street Entertainment District, but unlike most properties it is not owned by the city. It doesn’t show up on the Shelby County Assessor’s website. Kane, who coaches one of Weirich’s children in youth sports, said he and his partners bought the club and the real estate in 2009 “as a pure real estate play” because it is next door to Blues City Cafe, which they also own. They bought it with Rusty Hyneman, but bought him out after a year.

“I’m one of the owners, but I don’t run the place,” Kane said. “We didn’t know drug sales were going on for six months. We fire people every week, trying to get rid of bad employees. I’m outraged. I want Beale Street to be a positive, safe environment for everyone.”

According to Nightclub & Bar magazine, Club 152 grosses $5 million to $10 million a year, which makes it one of the trade journal’s “Top 100” for the last three years running. No other club in Memphis, and only two in the whole Southeastern United States, has made the list, which is dominated by clubs in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York. Club 152 touts “three floors of fun” serving up food, drinks, and deejays. A fourth floor is the stuff of urban legend but not on the website. It describes the after-midnight weekend offerings on the upper floors as “upscale freakism” but adds coyly, “You will have to be the judge of that.”

Actually, Environmental Court judge Larry Potter will be the judge of that. A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in his court to decide if and when the club will reopen. The investigation by undercover agents documented the sale and use of marijuana, cocaine, Xanax, and Percocet at the club and a year-long history of more than 130 police calls, including more than 20 fights and 37 arrests.

Weirich may have been holding back some information for Tuesday’s court hearing. If not, given Beale Street’s history, it is tempting to say, “Is that all you got in seven months?” Back in 1917, W.C. Handy wrote these lines in the “Beale Street Blues.”

“If Beale Street could talk, if Beale Street could talk, married men would have to take their beds and walk.

“You’ll meet honest men and pickpockets skilled. You’ll find that business never ceases ’til somebody gets killed.”

Kane said he visits Club 152 about five times a year but not much after midnight. He predicted the club would open within a week.

“It draws a diverse crowd,” he said. “It is not some rogue, dark, seedy, terrible environment. We’ll deal with it.”

On Monday, he wrote a letter to his board members saying his role in the club has been overstated in the media but giving no details of his financial stake.

Hansom questioned the timing of the bust and the magnitude of the problem, if it was allowed to go on for seven months.

“The club has been under investigation since last November,” he said. “What occurred in the last two weeks that didn’t occur two months ago, or what was happening that they couldn’t have waited until June 1st?”

The bust comes as the city is looking for new management for the Beale Street Historic District, and the Grizzlies’ new ownership is closely following what’s happening in their neighborhood. Beale Street has defied the best efforts of accountants and attorneys to document its financial history ever since former Mayor Willie Herenton commissioned an audit 20 years ago that netted little, other than a $600,000 legal bill.

It’s Beale Street — unique, rowdy, and inscrutable, where opportunity knocks and the players know nothing and know everything at the same time.

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Opinion

Beale Street Club 152 Hearing Postponed

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The environmental court hearing for Club 152 that was scheduled for Monday to determine how long the club should be closed will be held Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. instead.

The club was shut down last Thursday as a “public nuisance” by District Attorney General Amy Weirich and West Tennessee Drug Task Force agents.

Les Smith of Fox13 News and I ran into attorney Ted Hansom in the lobby of 201 Poplar and talked to him briefly. Hansom said he is representing club owners Charlie Ryan, Kevin Kane, and Bud Chittom. Based on an undercover investigation, the complaint makes allegations of drug use and sales by at least four unnamed employees, and cites a long record of “violence and crime at and around the location on Beale Street.”

Hansom said that as of Monday morning there had been no arrests.

“This is like closing Macy’s two weeks before Christmas,” said Hansom. “Memphis In May and the barbecue contest weekend are big times for all the employees who work there.”

Hansom said the owners “tried to be proactive” and contacted former district attorney Bill Gibbons three years ago to do something about drugs on Beale Street. Kane said in an interview last week that the effort went nowhere. He questioned the timing of the club closing during the barbecue contest and a week before the Memphis Grizzlies next home game in the Playoffs.

“The club has been under investigation since last November,” Hansom said. “What occurred in the last two weeks that didn’t occur two months ago, or what was happening that they couldn’t have waited until June 1st?”

The complaint says the club “constitutes a nuisance as well as a clear and present danger to the patrons of the club, the patrons of Beale Street, and this community at large.”

It was closed Thursday in a dramatic show of force, with media notified in advance and club patrons ushered out of the club and on to the street. Hansom said the owners face a hard choice.

“If they call the police then the DA says look how many police reports there are. And if they don’t call the police . . .” His thought trailed off and he shrugged and turned up his hands.

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Opinion

Beale’s Club 152: “We’ll take care of it,” says Kevin Kane

CREDIT: Bianca Phillips

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Kevin Kane says he was surprised when he got the news Thursday night that the Beale Street nightclub Club 152, in which he has an ownership interest, had been shut down as a public nuisance.

The head of the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau owns Club 152 along with Charlie Ryan and Bud Chittom. State drug agents and local prosectors closed it after getting an injunction in, of all places, Environmental Court, signed by Judge Larry Potter. The alleged nuisance includes fights, drug sales and other criminal activity reported to police since 2012 and observed by an undercover officer and an informant over the last five months.

“The law-abiding businesses and patrons of Beale Street deserve better than what Club 152 has allowed to happen, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich. A court appearance is scheduled for Monday. The “manager and owners” are ordered to appear.

Kane, father of three young children, said he coaches Weirich’s child in youth sports. He said he and his partners bought the club and the real estate in 2009 “as a pure real estate play” because it is next door to Blues City Cafe, which they also own. They bought it with Rusty Hyneman but bought him out after a year.

“I”m one of the owners but I don’t run the place. We didn’t know drug sales were going on for six months,” Kane said. “We fire people every week trying to get rid of bad employees. I’m outraged, and I want Beale Street to be a positive, safe environment for everyone.”

He thinks the unnamed security employees selling drugs in the complaint are four part-timers out of 150 employees.

“We’re not sure it was a manager” as alleged Weirich’s petition, which says the atmosphere at Club 152 is “quite dangerous with busy crowds both in the club itself and on Beale Street at the heart of the Memphis entertainment district.” Beale Street is getting unusual attention and television exposure this month due to Memphis In May and the Grizzlies run in the NBA playoffs. But the rowdy reputation of Club 152 precedes that, as Weirich’s petition documents.

Club 152 is ranked Number 71 in Nightclub and Bar’s “Top 100” for 2013.

The investigation went to considerable pains to document the sale and use of marijuana, cocaine, Xanax, and Percocet at the club, probably in part because of the high-profile location and ownership. Kane admitted it would be nearly impossible for a club manager not to recognize the smell if not the sight of employees and patrons openly smoking marijuana, as the complaint alleges. He and Chittom said that three years ago they went to then attorney general Bill Gibbons and said “we’ve got a problem” with drugs on Beale Street but nothing came of it.

Kane said he visits the club maybe five times a year, but not at 3 a.m. He described it as tourists on the first floor, urban on the second floor, and VIPs, big-spenders, and athletes on the third floor. The age limit for admission is 21.

“It draws a diverse crowd,” he said. “It is not some rogue, dark, seedy terrible environment. We’ll deal with it.”

He predicted it will reopen within the month.

Monday’s hearing should be interesting. Drug use and sales among bar and nightclub employees are not considered unusual by people who have worked in the business. Owners and managers are supposed to deal with it. Weirich says Club 152 crossed a line. The owners are nobody’s fools. The Grizzlies will be playing at home next week. It’s Beale Street. Enough said.