Thursday, November 05, 2009

More on the Martini Lounge Incident

ANC 6A Commissioner Joe Fengler passed on this ABRA generated summary of the ABC hearing that followed a non-fatal stabbing at the H Street Martini Lounge:

On November 4, 2009, the ABC Board held a Fact Finding Hearing on Investigative Report No. 09-251-00278. This matter concerned the stabbing of two different patrons on the night of October 27, 2009 at Humphries Enterprises, LLC t/a H Street Martini Lounge located at 1236 H Street NE. The altercation resulted in an action by Chief of Police Cathy Lanier to close the establishment for 96 hours pursuant to her authority under DC Official Code Section 25-827.

ABRA Investigator Ileana Corrales, MPD Detective Sabrina White and MPD Officers Joseph Thomas and Charles Johnson testified as to the incident. Officer Johnson was present from the beginning as this area is a part of his regular beat. He witnessed two large groups on the second floor who became embroiled in a physical altercation that had escalated from a verbal fight. One group was comprised of DC Firefighters who were celebrating a birthday. The other group was comprised of several young male patrons. Officer Johnson was successful in calming the two groups down from the verbal altercation when one of the firefighters “flew over his back” and sparked the physical fight. Additional MPD assistance was called (upwards of 10 officers) who broke up the fight and dispersed the crowd. MPD inquired of the crowd if anyone was hurt and no one spoke up. It was only after learning that two patrons went to the hospital for lacerations did MPD realize that they needed to return to the establishment and treat it as a crime scene. There was also testimony that bar staff was cleaning up the blood before MPD could fully secure the second floor.

Detective White testified that she arrived on the scene after the fight. When attempting to interview and secure information from the owner, Mr. Humphries, she testified she was thwarted in her efforts to do so. Mr. Humphries was not cooperative in her opinion and was not forthcoming in providing any information. She also suspected that Mr. Humphries and another gentleman may have deleted the video footage from the hard drive on the laptop as she approached them.

Mr. Humphries testified that he was downstairs when the fight broke out and as he was beginning to ascend the stairs, people were leaving. He voluntarily agreed to close the bar for the evening upon the request of MPD. He stated that he has complied with the Board’s requirements that resulted from a May 2009 Fact Finding hearing (an altercation between a patron and security personnel) by filing a Security Plan and upgrading his camera system, however these measures were not taken until after the deadline set by the Board. Mr. Humphries does have six operational cameras in the establishment which properly recorded footage up through October 17, 2009 but he did not realize that a certain switch had to be triggered for the 30 day override and that’s why the incident on October 27, 2009 was not recorded. He also stated that he fully cooperated with ABRA and MPD and is willing to undertake any additional requirements imposed by the Board.

Seven area neighborhood and community leaders spoke in support of Mr. Humphries and asked the Board not to impose a suspension.

The Board voted 6-0 to send the matter to the Office of the Attorney General to Show Cause the enforcement of any alleged violations, chiefly due to the allegations that Mr. Humphries interfered with an ABRA or MPD investigation and he failed to comply with the Security Agreement.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

And I thought this place was different.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm...stabbings at 'H Street Martini Lounge', shootings at 'Twelve'. I wonder why violent crimes never happen at Rock n Roll Hotel, Red and the Black, Little Miss Whiskeys, Sticky Rice, Argonaut, or H Street Country Club? Hmmmm just cant figure it out......

Anonymous said...

When has there been a shooting at XII?

Anonymous said...

Yeah. Shooting at XII? Link please. TIA.

Anonymous said...

MPD would probably have a pretty strong case if they reckognized the crime scene that practically bit them in the ass. My first thought is obstruction of justice, but by returning after the fact it's harder to fault the staff for cleaning the blood. Curious that the ABRA-mandated video surveilance failed. Funny that it's firefighters involved in a brawl in a bar owned by another firefighter . . . I'm just saying.

Anonymous said...

There have been violent incidents at Argonaut too. But people typically don't get as worked up about them. I wonder why... Hmmmm just can't figure it out.......

Rob said...

Off topic, here's a picture of the new sidewalks on H, with the street name carved in stone.

Also noticed that Pap & Petey's is being renovated again.

Anonymous said...

6:23

There was never a violent incident at Argonaut. An employee was shot in the face walking home after a shift there..........big difference.

Anonymous said...

"Hmmmm...stabbings at 'H Street Martini Lounge', shootings at 'Twelve'. I wonder why violent crimes never happen at Rock n Roll Hotel, Red and the Black, Little Miss Whiskeys, Sticky Rice, Argonaut, or H Street Country Club? Hmmmm just cant figure it out......"

Why don't you move to Clarendon you entitled white supremacist?

u small minded people said...

that last comment was stupid. as if only white people go to those places.

seriously. that last person needs to go back to their ghetto.... the place where they learned that perspective.

oh, yeah, and their are all kinds of ghettos, BTW. my girlfriend grew up in a hispanic ghetto.

get a life, tardo.

Anonymous said...

"Why don't you move to Clarendon you entitled white supremacist?"

I will trade all of the black thugs who commit crime to Clarendon for all the white suprenacists in the world. Atleast they don't roit, burn cities down, and commit the majority of all crime in US cities

Anonymous said...

9:40--

Congrats! That might be the dumbest thing ever posted on this blog!

big green cat said...

Firefighters 'setting it off'? (no pun intended)

Is that what's really 'hot' on H Street?? (no pun/consonnance intended)

lol

MJ said...

I wonder why violent crimes never happen at Rock n Roll Hotel, Red and the Black, Little Miss Whiskeys, Sticky Rice, Argonaut, or H Street Country Club? Hmmmm just cant figure it out......

you do realize that if you offered up your bit of race-baiting analysis in any of those places you would get your ass kicked?

You wouldn't say something that stupid in public, why do you feel compelled to share it on FT?

Mike S. said...

seriously, it's a good thing you can't get stabbed in the comments section or the cops would have to shut this blog down.

Anonymous said...

Let's face it, the truth hurts.

Anonymous said...

@Mike S.

seriously, it's a good thing you can't get stabbed in the comments section or the cops would have to shut this blog down.

..Or walked away from the crime scene only to realize 'oh snap . . . I missed this giant pool of blood"

Anonymous said...

I'm still waiting for the "shootings at XII" comment to be substantiated.

What, someone threw that out there as an allegation they can't support? Surely not!

8th and El said...

I'll call this a coincidence that it happened here. Or not. I know some beefy, attractive firefighters that spark the ire and jealously of all those around them when they walk into a nightspot. But that's not to say that some jealous punks started a fight, or that someone always gets stabbed when firefighters go out in groups.

I've also been to plenty of "white" clubs in this city with fighting, stabbing, and more happening inside and out. Please keep your predejuices off this board.

Mike S. said...

huh?

Anonymous said...

The report on the 10/26/09 incident outside - not inside - of XII is posted on the ANC6a website.
All official actions related to ABRA and VA violations are posted there.

http://www.anc6a.org/volAgrees/twelveABRA102609.pdf

Joseph Fengler said...

The ABC Board decided to set a fact-finding hearing on this incident for Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. at ABRA. It is a public hearing so please feel free to attend.

Alan Page said...

after reading the info in that link, anon @ 4:52 sounds insane. it was outside twelve, one shot was fired into the air (not into a person) and it was fired by a galludet student? i don't think this was the stereotype you were grasping for, anon @ 4:52.

or were you trying to infer that only some establishments on h bring out the rowdy, hearing impaired college crowd? WTF?