Friday, September 11, 2009
News Backstreet Update
Posted by Bianca Phillips on Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 3:42 PM
Backstreet owner Shane Trice was set to appear in Environmental Court Friday morning, but the case has been reset until September 25th. The club will remain closed until then.
The city's largest gay dance club was raided and temporarily closed last week as a public nuisance, the result of a months-long undercover police operation. Trice was arrested and charged with aggravated gambling promotion, storage of liquor for sale, possession of gambling device, and unlawful sale of alcohol.
According to Backstreet's e-mail newsletter sent out on Thursday, patrons are encouraged to hang out at Metro (1349 Autumn) on Friday night and Mary's (405 N. Cleveland) on Saturday night.
Comments (12)
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Gambling + liquor and alcohol charges = Environmental Court? Surely I'm misunderstanding the meaning of environmental.
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Exactly... That's for zoning violations.
Where is the trial for organized crime on the charges of gambling and drugs going to be held?
I wish government would spend so much time and effort targeting violent and property crime and leave consenting adults alone. The nanny state gives rise to the police state.
The alcohol and drug charges are personal charges and will be addressed at a later date in a different court. As far as being a consenting adult...you can be consentual in your own home; but if others around you in a public environment aren't consenting to your behavior, then you are violating their rights. Why do so many people think that just because they're gay (I am gay, so don't play that card), that they're entitled to do illegal things with no consequence? Please help me understand how homosexuals are deserving of special treatment. It is this type of behavior that is counterproductive when it comes to gaining other rights that many heterosexuals have.
The DA spent a chunk of the taxpayer's money sending the Organized Crime Unit in for months, and arrest warrants were obtained on sworn affadavits that gambling and drug sales on a large enough scale to call for immedate closure were observed.
Those aren't just 'personal charges', and many a club has been visited by the appropriate LE agencies over allegations of underage drinking etc, without shutting the whole place down.
In fact it usually takes many such charges, and a ton of citizen complaints capped off by a few shootings, before the DA even starts talking about hearings to initiate the process.
Something out of the ordinary is going on here. And I'm not a big believer in mere coincidences around campaign time.
this has nothing to do with elections...the election is a special election for mayor and the county DA is responsible. some people like to read a little more into it than what's actually there, i guess.
They can close this joint down and a new one, will be opened somewhere else in a week. Thats just how it goes. They'll end up spending more money and man power staking it out and closing it down there to. People want to live like this. Their wasting there time trying to stop it. I totally agree on the court system comments. This will all end end up in every court they have. I do agree that people should keep their private parts of their life behind closed doors. If straight people were carring on like this outside somewhere they would be arrested for indescent exposer.
Powergamz;
I went to the link you provided and must say that this Bill Gibbons impresses me. Not a mention of Family Values or Marriage or anything like that. Seems a serious character. AM I wrong? Is he peddling hate somwhere else?
@Robert Zeller
That's a good question. Until now, DA-wise, Gibbons hasn't exactly been Attilla the Hun by any means.
Maybe not every DA is the next Roy Cohn, but I'm open to cynical possibilities.
For now I guess all we can do is wait for more information, and perhap the next raid.
There was not sufficient evidence to support this case so on Sept 11 when Shane went to Criminal court they asked if go to a grand jury due to the lack of evidence and the Judge Agreed. Now we will see if the grand jury takes the case. So far they have not. But there was no gambling going on at backstreet and for all of the people that were told by organized crime they can not bring liquor into the bar that is false Backstreet has a mixing bar permit through the state of Tennessee that allows you to bring in liquor. That’s right this horrible businessman pays liquor tax on all of the drinks you come in and drink while purchasing set ups at Backstreet. Sorry for all you Backstreet haters but this is very legal and Shane does a great thing by paying your liquor tax for you. I’m sure you are pissed they stole all of your liquor but just know it was VERY legal to have there.
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