Panel Votes to Close Nightclub Over Reports of Violence

Responding to complaints of gang fights and violent security guards at the Stargate nightclub, the Planning Commission voted unanimously Monday to revoke the club’s permits.

The decision would not immediately close the club. Instead, it will be allowed to remain open during the club’s appeal to the City Council. Attorney Charles Cohen, who represents Stargate management, vowed to take the matter to the council.

The commissioners said the number of fights, combined with the management’s inability to stop them, left them with no choice but to revoke the permits needed to sell alcohol and allow dancing at the club.

“I come to the conclusion that there’s an arrogant and total disregard for the laws and policies of this city,” Commissioner Ronald Polanski said. “I do not think this is acceptable.”

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Club critics lined up Monday night to complain about fights among gang members in the parking lots, ane recent stabbing and security guards assaulting patrons.

The Sheriff’s Department, which provides police services to the city, led the drive to close the nightspot.

“I cannot, as a representative of the Police Department, guarantee the safety of anyone going there,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Brown.

The Stargate’s management said police have exaggerated the problems, overestimating the number and severity of fights at their business.

“It’s all been blown out of proportion,” club owner Emre Sarihan said before the meeting.

Sarihan said all nightclubs experience occasional fights. Police, he said, were picking on the Stargate out of fear that any violence there might tarnish the city’s low-crime image.

“It’s because Thousand Oaks is the safest city in the U.S., and they think this might ruin that,” he said.

To many of those testifying before the commission, the Stargate is anything but safe.

Brian McConnell of Canoga Park told commissioners that one night in January security guards attacked him after his sister and brother-in-law complained that the club disc jockey had kissed the sister against her wishes.

“Next thing I know, some guy’s hand is on my throat,” McConnell said.

The guards shoved him to the ground, giving him a gash on the face that took more than 10 stitches to close, he said. “The security guards were saying, ‘You want some more? We can do that to the other side of your face.’ ”

Sheriff’s deputies complained that the club’s management had told employees not to talk to the police.

“If the Police Department cannot investigate crimes, the future is very bleak for everyone,” Brown said.

If the commission’s decision to revoke Stargate’s permit is upheld by the City Council, the business, which also operates an attached restaurant called Tebo’s Baja Grille, would no longer be able to sell alcohol or allow dancing. The restaurant, however, would be allowed to continue operation.

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According to sheriff’s deputies in Thousand Oaks, Stargate has both a long history of trouble and a large, rowdy clientele. Between 400 and 500 people regularly show up on Friday and Saturday nights, many of them gang members from throughout Ventura and Los Angeles counties, deputies said. The patrons drink and sometimes fight in the parking lot.

One fight in January sent an Oxnard man to the hospital with multiple stab wounds, deputies said. Officers had to call in extra officers from Camarillo and the California Highway Patrol to help break up the unruly crowd.

Lt. Brown met with Stargate management in December to warn that the Sheriff’s Department would try to have the club’s permit revoked.

Club managers canceled their weekly Teen Night in response, but Brown said the change did not end disturbances at the club.

“That’s been an escalating problem down there,” he said. “It’s not getting better.”