Chicago club's closure debated

CHICAGO -- The nightspot where 21 people died in a stampede this week was a popular stop for the hip-hop crowd and it had a reputation for trouble: Police say they received scores of calls about it over the past three years and city inspectors found nearly a dozen code violations in the building last summer.

But when authorities tried to shut down the E2 nightclub a year ago, community leaders rushed to defend it, saying it was an important, black-owned business. In a letter to a city alderman, the Rev. Jesse Jackson called Epitome, a restaurant underneath E2, "one of the few fine dining establishments in Chicago owned and operated by African Americans."

Whether the outcry helped keep the club open was unknown Wednesday. City officials said a court order to close E2 was clear, while club attorneys say it was open to interpretation.

One thing is clear: The club and restaurant are headed by a man with connections.

According to public records, Dwain J. Kyles is president and owner of Le Mirage Studio Ltd., which owns both E2 and Epitome. His father, the Rev. Samuel Billy Kyles, was a close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a close friend of Jackson and a founder of Operation PUSH.

Dwain Kyles, 48, has served as an attorney for Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, as it is now known.

Kyles and Calvin Hollins have run the popular South Side club, which has had several names, since the early 1980s. They envisioned it as a spot where black professionals could mix with celebrities like George Benson, P. Diddy and 50 Cent, and members of Chicago's professional sports teams.

It worked. The club was a popular dance spot.

However, police Superintendent Terry Hillard said officers had responded to 80 calls of battery and other trouble at or near the club in the last three years.

City building inspectors also cited the establishment for 11 code violations last year. Last July, a Cook County judge ordered the landlord and Kyles to stop using the second floor, where the nightclub is located and where the stampede began early Monday.

An attorney for Kyles has said the judge's order pertained to only one section of the club, a point the city disputes. Hillard said police didn't know about an order to close the club -- and it stayed open.

At the time, the Rev. Bamani Obadele complained the city was cracking down for crimes that were actually occurring outside the club. After the stampede, Obadele said he was second-guessing the push to keep E2 open.

"If they had closed this place down last year, would 21 people still be alive?" he asked. "That's what I'm dealing with now."

Jackson had rushed to the scene within a few hours of the tragedy, offering condolences to victims while defending Kyles. He called his childhood friend an "upstanding example of a young professional person in our community," and suggested the city shares some liability for not enforcing the court order.

Mayor Richard M. Daley condemned the operators of the nightclub for keeping it open in defiance of the court order. The city has asked a judge to jail Kyles for contempt of court, and a March 7 hearing is scheduled.

Kyles and Hollins visited the scene of the tragedy briefly Wednesday.

"I have children of my own," Kyles said before breaking down in tears. Hollins declined to comment at the scene and efforts to find a telephone number for him were unsuccessful.

The city stepped up pressure on the business Wednesday, moving to revoke the liquor and food licenses from Le Mirage. City attorneys said the restaurant was open Jan. 10, when it should have been closed for a 2001 incident in which a minor bought alcohol.

Jennifer Hoyle, a spokeswoman for the city's legal agency, also said Hollins is a part-owner of the establishment -- a violation of the liquor code because he has been convicted of a felony.

Hollins is a former Cook County sheriff's deputy who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for fatally shooting a man outside a Chicago nightspot he ran in 1984. Gov. Jim Edgar commuted Hollins' sentence in 1991.