Santa Ana : Club Owner Alleges Racism, Seeks Probe

The owners of a Santa Ana jazz club that draws a predominantly African American clientele submitted sworn affidavits to the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday, alleging that the Japan-based landlord has waged a racist campaign to put the club out of business.

The building, at Three Hutton Centre, is owned by Tokyo-based Orix Corp. It was managed by Nansay U.S.A. Inc. until last year, and is now managed by New York-based Cushman & Wakefield, said Randell Young, co-owner of Randell’s jazz club.

Young said he hoped the hundreds of pages of sworn statements, photographs and letters will persuade the federal government to open a civil rights investigation into what he described as two years of racially motivated harassment. He filed a lawsuit against the companies in Los Angeles Superior Court last year.

Officials at both Nansay and Cushman and Wakefield declined to comment Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice in Washington said the agency received the packet Tuesday and will review the allegations to determine whether there was a violation of the Public Accommodations Act. That act, part of 1964 civil rights law that says you cannot discriminate against one group of people, covers places of entertainment.

According to one affidavit submitted Tuesday by a construction contractor, Nansay President Kazuo Yokeno allegedly told the contractor to hold off on a job temporarily because there were too many black customers going to the club. The statement alleges that Yokeno used a derogatory term to describe customers and said he didn’t want black people to “take over the building.”

Young also submitted a sworn statement from a former vice president of Nansay who alleged that Yokeno made it clear he considered black tenants a liability.

Young’s partner, Michael S. Cramer, submitted a statement saying Yokeno told him he was worried that “a lot of blacks” were going into Randell’s.

In March, Nansay U.S.A. stopped managing the building and Orix hired Cushman and Wakefield, said Young, who is running for mayor of Santa Ana.

Young alleges that harassment has continued with the new property manager. He outlined 89 incidents of alleged harassment in the sworn statements, contending that the new property manager tried to block the club’s access to cable, scheduled loud maintenance work during prime business hours, coated the floors with strong chemicals before the Saturday business rush, and billed them for inappropriate expenses.