LOWELL -- The Lowell Police Department wants the city's License Commission to take stringent disciplinary action against the city establishments connected to two recent high-profile incidents of violence downtown.
To enable the commission to act, Lowell Police Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee late last month filed complaints with the License Commission against Fortunato's on Palmer Street and the Village Smokehouse on Middle Street.
Fortunato's upstairs nightclub venue, Club 44, was the scene of a February brawl resulting in 14 people being arrested and three police officers being injured.
More than 200 people were in the club at the time of the incident and blocked exits, including a padlocked door, making it difficult for them to leave during the melee, and challenging for police to enter, according to the complaint.
The morning of the incident, the city shut down the restaurant because of health-code violations. Days later, the city posted a second sign declaring the building unsafe due to "inadequate working means of egress."
The restaurant and nightclub have not reopened since.
The Police Department has accused Fortunato's of seven different types of violations, including exceeding the occupancy limit of 108 people, permitting a blocked or impeded ingress or egress, delivering an alcoholic beverage to someone under 21, and delivering alcoholic beverages to intoxicated people (eight counts).
Lavallee said he would like to see the License Commission consider suspending Fortunato's license for a lengthy period of time, as well as roll back its hours of operation for an extended period.
"Fortunato's demands the most aggressive response to the violations that occurred," Lavallee said. "We are talking about health and safety issues that are very serious."
Fortunato's has obtained a permit to allow the restaurant to complete the work necessary to be occupied as a restaurant, but the work being performed will not allow the facility to be occupied as a nightclub, said Kendra Amaral, the city's deputy director of Development Services. She did not provide specifics.
The club still has to resolve sanitary-code issues, Amaral said.
Fortunato's owner Yousef Ayyub said he denies all the complaints made against his establishment. He did express some remorse about the brawl that took place, and said he would be willing to reduce the hours his facility is open, if necessary.
"Accidents sometimes happen and one happened at my place," he said.
But Ayyub said the way the city has gone after him and his establishment following the incident has been "unfair." He has run the facility since 2005.
"There have never been any other incidents since we have been open," he said. "I might lose my house, lose my restaurant and go into bankruptcy because of this.
"If they are going to run me out of town, at least give me a chance to say goodbye," Ayyub added.
The complaint against the Village Smokehouse is in connection to two men being severely beaten on Middle Street by unidentified assailants last month.
Police allege the two men had been drinking all night at the Village Smokehouse and one man had to hold on to the other because he had too much to drink.
Lavallee's complaint accuses the establishment of two counts of delivering alcohol to an intoxicated person and allowing an illegal activity to take place on the licensed premises.
Alan Kaplan, owner of the Smokehouse, did not respond to a request for comment.
Per request of the Police Department and the city's Law Department, the License Commission will take up the complaint against Fortunato's at its meeting Thursday at 3 p.m.
The commission will not be able to consider decreasing the establishment's hours at Thursday's meeting because licensees must be given 14 days of notice before that type of action is taken, said Ryan Wynn, the License Commission's executive secretary.
Commissioners will be able to consider suspending or revoking Fortunato's liquor license, said Wynn. The commission also likely will discuss decreasing Fortunato's hours of operation at its March 22 meeting, Wynn said.
The complaint against the Village Smokehouse will be discussed at the March 22 meeting.
The Police Department also recently filed a complaint against the Trainview Pub on Gorham Street for an incident just days after the Fortunato's brawl. The alleged violations are failing to report a crime or disturbance to the Police Department, a blocked or impeded egress or ingress, and two counts of permitting an illegality to take place on the licensed premises.
John Resendes, Trainview's manager, did not respond to a request for comment yesterday. The commission will discuss the Trainview complaint March 22.
Follow Lyle Moran at twitter.com/lylemoran .
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