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| | | Martini Lounge investigated in wake of firefighter stabbings | | November 09, 2009 | | | | Voice Correspondent | | This story has been updated since it was first posted Nov. 9.
The owner of H Street Martini Lounge, who is under investigation for allegedly interfering with the inquiry into a violent fight at his establishment, said this week he plans to sell the lounge.
“It’s just not safe” on H Street, owner Cliff Humphries said last week at a meeting of alcoholic beverage licensing committee of the Northeast Capitol Hill (ANC 6A) advisory neighborhood commission.
“We believe that we’re safe, but H Street’s not,” he said.
Since the Oct. 27 incident, which officials classified as a stabbing of two D.C. firefighters, city alcohol officials have also begun investigating two other violent incidents that occurred at the pub’s door in recent weeks.
The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board unanimously voted during an emergency hearing two weeks ago to send the alleged stabbing case to the Office of the Attorney General for further investigation. The hearing was called after D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier shut down the bar for 96 hours after the Oct. 27 fight erupted between a group of firefighters and another group of men.
According to a report from the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, an independent agency that monitors compliance with liquor laws, a beat cop was already inside Martini Lounge at a “business check” when he heard the altercation starting on the second floor. The cop said he attempted to calm the disagreement between the two groups when a firefighter “flew over his back” and started a physical fight. Ten officers were called to break up the altercation and left after participants assured them that no one was hurt.
The officers later discovered that two patrons, D.C. firefighters Ernest Payne and Damien Jackson, had been cut during the incident and drove themselves to Washington Hospital Center for treatment, according to the report. The officers then returned to the bar to discover workers cleaning up spilled blood on the floor, the report says.
Lounge owner Humphries denied that the incident was a “stabbing,” saying no weapon was recovered, and police at the scene surmised that the blood came from the police baton the beat cop was wielding during the fight.
Police have made no arrests. Calls to multiple police officials and the D.C. Fire Department were not returned. Multiple attempts to reach Humphries were also unsuccessful.
“It’s perplexing and disappointing,” said neighborhood commission chair Joe Fengler of the firefighters allegedly involved, whom he described as community leaders. “I hope it isn’t true.”
The alcohol agency’s report revealed multiple competing claims about the night’s events among the police, firefighters and Humphries.
According to the agency’s report, firefighters Jackson and Payne said they were not drunk during the fight. However, in a letter from Chief Lanier to the alcohol agency director Fred Moosally, a detective at the scene described one of the victims as “extremely intoxicated.”
Humphries, who is also a lieutenant in the Fire Department, told the board that he was on the first floor when the fight broke out. He said the incident wasn’t recorded on security cameras because he inadvertently neglected to reset the surveillance equipment after it automatically turned off earlier in October. The board forced Humphries to install the equipment following an altercation last May between a patron and security personnel.
Police Detective Sabrina White testified at the hearing that Humphries “was not cooperative” when she tried to interview him the night of the fight. She said she “suspected that Mr. Humphries and another gentleman may have deleted the video footage from the hard drive on the lap top as she approached them,” according to the hearing summary.
Humphries denied those charges, saying he fully cooperated with police and voluntarily agreed to shutter the bar that night.
It was the earlier May altercation that allowed the police chief to temporarily shutter the bar Oct. 27. D.C. law empowers the police chief to suspend a business license if there is a link between the establishment and increased incidents of crime within 1,000 feet during an 18-month period.
Seven “neighborhood and community leaders” testified in support of Humphries at the hearing and asked the board not to suspend the establishment’s license, according to the report.
Humphries is also in the midst of applying for a liquor license, along with his co-owner wife, for Dulce Cafe and Lounge on Pennsylvania Avenue SE. The pair has been haggling with the local advisory neighborhood commission and a group of residents over a liquor license for the spot, which opened this summer. Last week, the owners announced they would no longer open for dinner until the license is secured. | | | | | Log in to comment on this article |
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