NYtimes article on SF

[jrzcluba]

best indepth article out til now since the shutdown sat nite

The owner and two top executives of a popular Hell's Kitchen dance club were arrested yesterday in an early-morning raid at the club, which the authorities said was being run as a "stash house" where the use and sale of drugs were rampant.

In a news conference yesterday afternoon, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, David N. Kelley, said that overdoses by patrons of the club, Sound Factory, on 46th Street near 12th Avenue, were commonplace and often concealed by management. Mr. Kelley said the club operated what amounted to a makeshift intensive care unit, a room known as crack alley, where bouncers tried to revive clubgoers who had overdosed, to avoid calling 911.

Two people have suffered fatal overdoses at the club since 2000, Mr. Kelley said. He would not release their names.

"Sound Factory drew many customers who came to the club because they perceived that they would be readily able to obtain illegal drugs there," said a five-count federal indictment of the club's owner, Richard Grant; its director of security, Ronald Coffiel; and Randell Rogiers, who also worked in security. "Patrons often became so intoxicated on narcotics that they simply collapsed while dancing."

On one occasion, the indictment said, police officers intercepted two bouncers dropping an overdosing patron near a Dumpster.

Mr. Kelley said that undercover officers reported making 90 separate purchases of drugs, including cocaine, marijuana and so-called club drugs like crystal methamphetamine and Ecstasy, inside Sound Factory between May 2001 and last month.

"The owners and managers of Sound Factory chose dollars over decency," Mr. Kelley said.

The accused face up to 20 years in prison on each of the five counts against them if convicted.

Mr. Grant, Mr. Coffiel and Mr. Rogiers were to be arraigned today in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

"This is a big issue for us," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, whose undercover officers participated in the drug buys and in yesterday's raid, said at the news conference. "The whole club scene is generally one we want to encourage in the city, but they have to be run legally."

Sound Factory, one of the city's most popular big-box dance clubs, has grossed more than $6 million a year from entrance fees alone, which run from $30 to $50 a person depending on the night, the authorities said.

A cavernous spot popular for its after-hours "parties,'' the club usually has drawn 3,000 to 6,000 revelers, most arriving around 4 a.m. and not leaving until the next afternoon, law enforcement officials said. They said that on any given night, 70 percent of the club's clientele were high on drugs.

Mr. Kelley called the case against Sound Factory "unique, unusual and serious." Although clubs known for drug use and other illegal activity have not escaped the attention of law enforcement in recent years - Sound Factory, in particular, has been under surveillance for some time - officials said that yesterday was the first time the "stash house" charge, which is more often used against operators of crack cocaine dens, was used against a club.

In a statement included in the news release about the arrests, Mr. Kelley drew a connection between neighborhood pushers and club owners who allow drug use. "Club owners and managers who allow their premises to become dangerous drug markets are no different from those who run crack houses,'' he said, "and they will be prosecuted as such."

The indictment also seeks forfeiture of ownership interest in the club as well as $18 million.

Despite the arrests and a continuing investigation, Mr. Kelley said, the authorities did not have the legal right to close the club yesterday.

Vasile Comeasu, a worker at a 24-hour car wash at 46th Street and 12th Avenue, near Sound Factory, said the club made little difference to him. "They never bothered us," he said. "Every now and then in the winter you might see someone high without a shirt on, but they didn't come over here much."

In April 1999 and February 2003, the city filed court actions against Sound Factory and other clubs, calling them a public nuisance and seeking to have them closed.

In response, Mr. Grant and Sound Factory managers gave sworn statements about their efforts to keep drug users out of the club. They said they had increased the number, and training, of security staff members, and they declared their increased vigilance "successful," according to the indictment. Mr. Grant and Mr. Coffiel succeeded in defeating the effort to close Sound Factory. But federal prosecutors say the security program they touted "was a sham designed to stave off" the authorities. For instance, Mr. Grant was directed to keep a drug-sniffing dog in the club as one of the court-ordered terms of continuing operation.

However, Police Commissioner Kelly said that when police officers entered the club over the weekend, "the dog was asleep."

[jrzcluba]

YOU MITE REMEMBER THIS ONE

METROPOLITAN DESK | May 1, 1999, Saturday

METRO NEWS BRIEFS: NEW YORK; Judge Closes Two Clubs, Citing Drug Activity

(NYT) 250 words

Late Edition - Final , Section B , Page 4 , Column 5

ABSTRACT - New York State Supreme Court Judge Phyllis Gangel-Jacob, citing pattern of illegal drug activity, temporarily closes popular Manhattan nightclubs Sound Factory and The Tunnel, owned by embattled entertainment impresario Peter Gatien (S)

[jrzcluba]

OR THIS ONE

METROPOLITAN DESK | March 19, 1998, Thursday

15 Accused of Dealing Drugs At Midtown Manhattan Club

By BENJAMIN WEISER (NYT) 666 words

Late Edition - Final , Section B , Page 3 , Column 1

ABSTRACT - Federal prosecutors charge 15 men, including Alex Coffiel, described as head bouncer at midtown club Sound Factory, in scheme to sell thousands of dollars worth of Ecstasy and other drugs inside Sound Factory club and at other locations in midtown Manhattan (M)

[jrzcluba]

AND HOW CAN WE FORGET THE EVER INFAMOUS

February 8, 2003, Saturday

METROPOLITAN DESK

2 Nightclubs Closed; Police Cite Drug Use

The police last night closed two Manhattan nightclubs, Exit and Sound Factory, saying undercover investigations had found rampant drug use and sales.

Over three years, there were more than 170 arrests at Exit, at 610 West 56th Street, Inspector Robert Curley said. Fifty were for the sale of a controlled substance. There were 81 arrests at Sound Factory, at 616-620 West 46th Street, during the same period, 20 for drug sales, he said. The authorities plan to argue in court that the clubs should be kept closed for a year.

''We placed undercover investigators who were able to purchase drugs with relative ease, and observed numerous other drug sales,'' Inspector Curley said.

Sound Factory was also closed in May 1999 because of illegal drug sales. Eleven people are being prosecuted on charges of selling drugs inside the two clubs recently.

Published: 02 - 08 - 2003 , Late Edition - Final , Section B , Column 6 , Page 2

[planetgroove]

Well Black watch your back cause your next!

[johnnylaw]

Here is the Daily News articles and pics at this link. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/171452p-149532c.html

Jonathan should consider himself lucky that he was let go and got out unscathed.

[jrzcluba]

Originally posted by johnnylaw

Here is the Daily News articles and pics at this link. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/171452p-149532c.html

Jonathan should consider himself lucky that he was let go and got out unscathed.

this one is actually better

Hot spot raided

as a drug depot

By GREG GITTRICH

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

City cops and feds raid the Sound Factory yesterday, seizing unspecified amounts of drugs and guns.

Sound Factory

A cavernous midtown dance club where authorities say drug dealers were free to peddle their deadly wares was raided early yesterday by cops and federal agents, who arrested the owner and top security bosses.

The 6 a.m. bust at the Sound Factory on W. 46th St., where three people have died of overdoses in recent years, netted unspecified amounts of drugs and guns, cops said.

Club owner Richard Grant and security chiefs Ronald Coffiel and Randell Rogiers were charged under a statute making it a crime to provide a safe haven for drug dealers.

"He has blood on his hands as far as I'm concerned," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said of Grant, 61, whose club netted $6 million a year in cover charges alone.

Yesterday's crackdown, which capped a four-year probe into the club, sent scores of patrons into the street, authorities said. Interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney David Kelley said the suspects knew exactly what was going on in the 30,000-square-foot club, which has been the target of several police raids.

"The defendants ran a club where drug sales became rampant and the site of young people vomiting, convulsing and passing out became all too common," Kelley said.

According to an indictment released yesterday, Grant frequently attended marathon parties at the club, which drew up to 6,000 people. The club's deejay often kept a bag of crystal methamphetamine for his own use "in open view," the indictment charges.

In addition to fatal overdoses at the club, an additional 20 patrons have been rushed to hospitals after overdosing and many more were treated in back rooms the staff referred to as the "ICU" or "crack alley," authorities said.

Authorities say Grant, Coffiel and Rogiers let the drug dealers in because the death merchants drew crowds.

When the NYPD went after the Sound Factory following a drug bust last year, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Emily Jane Goodman refused to padlock the club, saying the owner could not be blamed for the behavior of patrons. Goodman ruled that the club must have a drug-sniffing dog at its entrance to remain open.

That dog was "asleep on the job, as usual," when cops made undercover drug buys in an investigation that culminated with yesterday's raid, the police commissioner said. "I remember the outrage of a mother after the Sound Factory was allowed to reopen," Kelly said. "Her son died of a brain hemorrhage after buying and taking Ecstasy at the [club]."

The club remains open, but officials said they hope a judge will permanently shut it down.

Ecstasy is known to cause dehydration, and Kelly charged that Grant preyed on drug-addled patrons by charging up to $9 for a small bottle of water.

Kenneth Aronson, lawyer for the club, said Grant had his workers search all patrons before letting them in.

"Their only intent is to keep the drugs out," he said

[jrzcluba]

Originally posted by planetgroove

Well Black watch your back cause your next!

i hope not but u gotta admitt it seems kinda obvious being that everyone and their mother that was working at SF in its JP days will now be over at Black

as of now (not like it didnt before but now its more obvious) Black WILL have a big red target painted on their backs

[kostaP]

Originally posted by jrzcluba

including Alex Coffiel, described as head bouncer at midtown club Sound Factory,

Originally posted by jrzcluba

its director of security, Ronald Coffiel;

Runs in the family

[chillfactor]

sf will never be the same.........no matter who runs it.

this place will always be on the watch now.

i miss the old sf.....some of the best after parties i ever had.

www.chillfactorper4mance.com

[doubleplay1970]

i kinda thought the "70% of patrons were high on drugs " was a low estimate id figure more like 90%

amazing how short it was from when JP left and SF got raided and better yet it gets raided a week before Black opens

things that make you go hmmmmmmm

if its done for good i want the flag out front