It took two hours of passionate debate Wednesday night for the Walthourville City Council to decide to postpone deciding whether to temporarily close the Bo’Maz nightclub.
The council held a show-cause hearing to allow club owners Bobby and Mazie Fabian to defend their business against a possible 30-day license suspension. Liberty County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Elpidio Fratichelli recommended closing the establishment while owners “figure out how to fix their problems.”
According to Fratichelli, problems at the popular nightspot have been mounting in recent months and reached a tipping point on the morning of May 20 when he responded to a call about a fight in the parking lot.
“The number of people, cars and intoxicated state of everyone in that parking lot made for a chaotic, disorderly and hectic scene,” the officer told the council in the city hall’s packed meeting room. “It was so difficult I could not even maneuver my patrol car to the area where they said the fight was taking place.”
The sergeant said that as he made his way through the crowd, 10 to 15 gunshots were fired, causing additional chaos as club goers scrambled to flee the parking lot. The incident resulted in every LCSD deputy on duty, as well as members of the Hinesville Police Department and Long County Sheriff’s Department, responding.
Noting he has become “accustomed to two, three, four shots being fired” in the club’s parking lot, Fratichelli said responding to incidents at the club has become a regular weekend activity. In the last year, there have been “80 police responses to Bo’Maz in comparison to 11 or less with the other clubs,” he told the council.
The officer also discussed a recent inspection by the Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner’s office where it was discovered Bo’Maz has nine fire safety violations, including lack of a fire alarm system and sprinklers, which are required for the 600-person capacity club.
The fire safety concerns coupled with the crowd control problems are a disaster waiting to happen, according to Fratichelli.
“There is no doubt in my mind that we have a problem and we must correct this problem before we have injuries or fatalities within our jurisdiction because of the Bo’Maz club,” he said.
The Fabians and their lawyer Kimberly Copeland, however, said Fratichelli was basing his recommendation on hypotheses, not facts.
“We don’t believe there’s any evidence that shows Bo’Maz needs to be shut down for 30 days,” Copeland said. “I don’t believe he presented any credible evidence to support his petition to this board other than what he saw and what his assumptions are about these club owners.”
Copeland said the Fabians have been in business for more than 30 years and there have been no “deaths on the property or major injuries on the property.”
As part of their defense, the owners played surveillance video from one of the club’s cameras showing people calmly exiting the club on the morning of May 20 to contradict Fratichelli’s description. Mazie Fabian, however, did say other cameras showed fewer than 10 people running after the gunshots were fired.
The owner also provided her own record of 911 calls that showed only eight from the club in the last nine months. Fifteen other calls on the list were from a phone number belonging to a resident in the Aspen Place Apartments complex, she said.
Following previous complaints about Bo’Maz’s security, Fabian said she had been in talks with the LCSD to use off-duty officers as security, but those plans have stalled.
“I’m trying to get the off-duty police to be there on the premises,” she said. “I’ve been trying. It’s not like we’re not trying.”
She said the requirements to have a fire alarm system and sprinklers did not come into effect until 2000 and the club could be grandfathered in under previous regulations.
The council held a show-cause hearing to allow club owners Bobby and Mazie Fabian to defend their business against a possible 30-day license suspension. Liberty County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Elpidio Fratichelli recommended closing the establishment while owners “figure out how to fix their problems.”
According to Fratichelli, problems at the popular nightspot have been mounting in recent months and reached a tipping point on the morning of May 20 when he responded to a call about a fight in the parking lot.
“The number of people, cars and intoxicated state of everyone in that parking lot made for a chaotic, disorderly and hectic scene,” the officer told the council in the city hall’s packed meeting room. “It was so difficult I could not even maneuver my patrol car to the area where they said the fight was taking place.”
The sergeant said that as he made his way through the crowd, 10 to 15 gunshots were fired, causing additional chaos as club goers scrambled to flee the parking lot. The incident resulted in every LCSD deputy on duty, as well as members of the Hinesville Police Department and Long County Sheriff’s Department, responding.
Noting he has become “accustomed to two, three, four shots being fired” in the club’s parking lot, Fratichelli said responding to incidents at the club has become a regular weekend activity. In the last year, there have been “80 police responses to Bo’Maz in comparison to 11 or less with the other clubs,” he told the council.
The officer also discussed a recent inspection by the Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner’s office where it was discovered Bo’Maz has nine fire safety violations, including lack of a fire alarm system and sprinklers, which are required for the 600-person capacity club.
The fire safety concerns coupled with the crowd control problems are a disaster waiting to happen, according to Fratichelli.
“There is no doubt in my mind that we have a problem and we must correct this problem before we have injuries or fatalities within our jurisdiction because of the Bo’Maz club,” he said.
The Fabians and their lawyer Kimberly Copeland, however, said Fratichelli was basing his recommendation on hypotheses, not facts.
“We don’t believe there’s any evidence that shows Bo’Maz needs to be shut down for 30 days,” Copeland said. “I don’t believe he presented any credible evidence to support his petition to this board other than what he saw and what his assumptions are about these club owners.”
Copeland said the Fabians have been in business for more than 30 years and there have been no “deaths on the property or major injuries on the property.”
As part of their defense, the owners played surveillance video from one of the club’s cameras showing people calmly exiting the club on the morning of May 20 to contradict Fratichelli’s description. Mazie Fabian, however, did say other cameras showed fewer than 10 people running after the gunshots were fired.
The owner also provided her own record of 911 calls that showed only eight from the club in the last nine months. Fifteen other calls on the list were from a phone number belonging to a resident in the Aspen Place Apartments complex, she said.
Following previous complaints about Bo’Maz’s security, Fabian said she had been in talks with the LCSD to use off-duty officers as security, but those plans have stalled.
“I’m trying to get the off-duty police to be there on the premises,” she said. “I’ve been trying. It’s not like we’re not trying.”
She said the requirements to have a fire alarm system and sprinklers did not come into effect until 2000 and the club could be grandfathered in under previous regulations.