Capitol Club’s appeal denied

by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI

The owner of the Capitol Club, 4244 N. Milwaukee Ave., lost an appeal of the revocation of his liquor and business licenses on Oct. 18 when a Circuit Court judge dismissed the appeal on the grounds that paperwork was filed late by his attorney, according to Alderman John Arena’s chief of staff Owen Brugh.

Judge Sophia Hall allowed nightclub owner Chester Kiercul to reopen and operate the club on Oct. 4 while he appealed the revocation. The city Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection ordered the club to close in July after the License Appeal Commission upheld the revocation of its licenses in June.

The department revoked the club’s public place of amusement license and food license last August after the owner allegedly did not cooperate with a police investigation stemming from an incident in December of 2009, according the license appeal commission.

Brugh said that the club has had numerous incidents over the years, including a shooting last year that prompted the alderman to call for an inspection of the club.

The appeal commission upheld the revocation of the licenses in April, even though it did not concur with all of the findings of the hearing commissioner. One of the charges that the commission reviewed was that on Dec. 13, 2009, Kiercul allegedly failed to cooperate with a police investigation of illegal activity in the club and to truthfully answer questions posed by officers.

The License Appeal Commission at its April 3 meeting summarized events from Dec. 13, 2009, in which officers were called to the nightclub and found a battery victim outside the club, according to the commission. Kiercul did not give officers security tapes that they requested, and an investigation found that an employee cleaned up the blood that was on the floor in the club, according to the commission.

However, the appeal commission determined that the problem with that finding was that the owner was never charged with contaminating a crime scene and there was no evidence that anyone instructed the owner not to clean up the blood, and it reversed the finding that the owner failed to cooperate under the city municipal code by ordering the clean-up of the blood.