Solana Beach
The would-be operator of a teen-age disco in Solana Beach was ordered Monday to stand trial in Vista Superior Court on charges of possessing cocaine and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Richard Henry Vander, 36, a former nightclub operator, remains free on $5,000 bail after his preliminary hearing before Vista Municipal Judge Luther Leeger.
Sheriff’s narcotics officer Rick Ellington testified Monday that, while meeting with Vander last November, he discovered one-sixteenth of an ounce of cocaine and a .38-caliber handgun in Vander’s office.
Vander had been seeking the approval of Solana Beach city officials to open the Distillery West disco as an alcohol-free nightspot for teen-agers. City officials initially balked, citing his criminal record in Texas and California for, among other things, possession of cocaine.
Solana Beach City Manager Michael Huse, in the face of lobbying from area teen-agers and their parents, agreed Nov. 7 to grant Vander’s business a permit as a chance for the man to “prove himself,” despite objections from the Sheriff’s Department.
Vander will be arraigned April 21 in Superior Court.
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