West Tennessee Drug Task Force

Let the upscale freakism resume.

Club 152 on Beale Street reopened Friday at noon (technically 1 p.m. because the order came just after noon) after a settlement was reached in Environmental Court. Third time was the charm, as the case had been reset twice this week while Judge Larry Potter met with attorneys. The club was closed a week ago as a public nuisance due to drug sales.

“This resolution must be abided by,” said Potter. “Deviation from this will incur the wrath of the court.”

Ted Hansom, representing Club 152, and Katie Ratton from the Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office, both said it was their common interest to try to get drugs off of Beale Street.

“The club has taken steps in assuring the prevention and abatement of any nuisance activity that was alleged to have existed at Club 152. Managers of Club 152 drug tested each and every potential employee of the club and are complying with the current mandatory background check requirement,” says the order. “Respondents have been very cooperative and efficient in complying.”

The club acknowledged the allegations and will submit to court supervision and monitoring for one year. They will fire all employees involved in illegal activity and ban them from the premises. Hansom said 106 employees had been tested. He said at least two and possibly more employees face criminal charges.

Club 152, which markets its upper floors as “upscale freakism,” will pay $4,000 to the West Tennessee Judicial Drug Task Force. Most important to the club owners, however, is that the club will reopen for what is expected to be one of the biggest weekends of the year.

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.