CAPE POLICE SEE NIGHTCLUB AS THREAT TO PUBLIC SAFETY

When the Cape Girardeau police chief testifies this week before the Missouri legislature, he will tell a story of a Cape Girardeau nightclub he says has become a threat to public safety.

The chief, Rick Hetzel, will tell legislators that the club, Chances, was denied a liquor license by the City Council because of concerns for public safety. After being denied the city license, Chances owner Doug Armour applied for and received a resort license from the state to sell liquor.

Since the bar opened last March with the resort license, problems and disturbances have continued at the establishment, Hetzel said in an interview last week.

"During the last 13 months, police have made about 80 calls to Chances, including 27 assaults," Hetzel said. "That includes the shooting of a 19-year-old on a so-called 'teen night.'"

But Armour denied that the number of incidents have been anywhere near as high as the chief indicated.

"He's a liar," Armour said. "We haven't even been open 13 months to begin with. He doesn't even know how long we've been open."

Armour said there have been at the most 10 calls made to the police since the bar opened in March, and most of those calls were to escort someone from the building. He added that there have been only two fights in the building since the club opened.

"That's less fights than have happened at city council meetings in the same amount of time," Armour said.

But police Capt. Steve Strong, who has compiled a list of incidents, said that 81 reports and requests for service were received by the police from Nov. 1, 1997, to Jan. 1.

"I don't believe that this reflects the total number of disturbances at Chances, just the number of reports and requests for service," Strong said.

Of the 81 calls, 27 of the calls were for assaults and fights. An additional five calls were to the fire department for medical assistance, three for assault victims, Strong said.

Strong, who will also testify before the Missouri legislature this week, did acknowledge that Chances did not exist at the time the count began in November 1997. But, he said, Chances is located in the same building that Peppy's Sports Bar had been located.

The reports, he said, refer not simply to the business, but to the location. Peppy's was put on probation and then denied a renewal of their liquor license in 1997 because of repeated incident reports.

In addition, Armour had been the manager of Peppy's before becoming the owner of Chances. There is, therefore, a continuity of management, Strong said.

Armour said the state requires that all problems occurring in an establishment that serves alcohol must be reported.

"But the city says that if there are too many problems, then they are going to try to shut the place down as a nuisance," he said.

Last April, Jerry Wolsey, president of Wolsey Investigative Service, sent a letter to Armour about one of the disturbances at the club that involved one of Wolsey's security officers. Wolsey's agency had a contract with Chances to supply security for the club.

In the letter, Wolsey indicated there had been a disturbance at the bar in which "one of my officers came close to getting stabbed." Three weeks earlier, another officer strained his back at Chances during a disturbance, Wolsey wrote.

"I do not want to end up with one of my officers getting injured," Wolsey said in the letter, "the likelihood of that is very high at your facility."

Early Christmas morning, 19-year-old Sulayman Moore of Cape Girardeau was shot in the groin on Chances' parking lot.

Armour said he thought the shooting was self-inflicted, caused when Moore was trying to pull the gun from his belt, but police said the investigation into the shooting was ongoing.

Although they have not yet determined the cause, police do not think it was self-inflicted and are continuing to investigate it as an assault.

Hetzel said his office is assembling information for submission for review by the prosecuting attorney's office.