Stampede bringing charges

CHICAGO -- The city will file criminal contempt charges against the owners of the nightclub where 21 people were killed in a stampede because the club had been ordered closed by a court order, Mayor Richard M. Daley said Tuesday.

"This tragedy is especially heartbreaking, first because the victims were so young," Daley said. "Secondly, because it was a disaster that absolutely should never have happened."

Daley and other city officials rejected the contention by owners of the E2 nightclub that they had a deal to stay open, despite a list of building code violations including failure to provide enough exits.

"Obviously these people were intent on breaking the law, and they broke the law," city corporation counsel Mara Georges said at a late morning news conference.

Hundreds of people packed into the second-floor E2 club on the city's South Side stampeded down a stairwell after security guards broke up a fight and someone sprayed pepper gas or Mace. A lawyer for the club operators suggested someone might have shouted a warning about a terrorist attack.

In the resulting panic, 21 people died and 57 were injured. It was one of the deadliest stampedes in recent memory.

Georges said the city had done everything in its power to keep the nightclub closed with action in civil housing court.

"In this situation we followed the law . . . yet they violated those court orders," Georges said. "There is nothing the city could have done absent being at this property twenty-four hours a day."

But police Superintendent Terry Hillard said the police department did not know that the nightclub was supposed to be closed.

"We were not aware of this order," Hillard said.

Georges said the city did not have the authority to padlock a business in this situation.

Daley said the city would review the way court orders are enforced.

Hillard also offered an update on the investigation so far, saying that a security guard at the club admitted that he sprayed pepper spray early Monday morning.

The club was operated by Le Mirage All-Night Studio Inc., which also owned the Epitome restaurant downstairs. E2 has featured such performers as R. Kelly and the rapper 50 Cent.

City officials pointed to a court order signed in July by Cook County Circuit Judge Daniel J. Lynch telling owners to shut down second-floor operations. Three months earlier a city complaint against the nightclub listed 11 alleged building-code violations, ranging from failure to submit architectural plans and engineering reports to failure to provide enough exits.

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