Denver Cracking Down on Roo-Bar, Another Hip-Hop Club

Roo-Bar Lounge, a hip-hop club at 3480 Park Avenue West, will have to defend itself against charges by the City and County of Denver that it's committed multiple code violations.

On November 10, the Department of Excise and Licenses sent registered Roo-Bar owners Jugurta Tighrine and Danny Safieddine an order to show cause, notifying them of a December 1 hearing where they would need to respond to allegations that the venue allowed disorderly conduct and had unlicensed security guards on the scene.

"They don’t want hip-hop. They think they are going to cause trouble," says Tighrine, who opened the club with Safieddine last November. Roo-Bar has gone through several iterations and locations over the past two decades; over that same period, many hip-hop clubs have come and gone in Denver. Some, such as Beta Event Center, were shut down by the city.

Safieddine says that he shouldn't be listed on the liquor license anymore, since he and Tighrine submitted a corporate structure change notice to the city in May indicating that Safieddine, who had been the majority owner, was dropping his ownership share down to 9 percent, which is below the 10 percent threshold that requires an owner be included on the liquor license.

"He doesn't know how to handle the business," says Safieddine of Tighrine.

That change application was never approved by Excise and Licenses, however. "All pending applications are on hold due to the pending Show Cause order," says Eric Escudero, spokesperson for Excise and Licenses. Roo-Bar Lounge has since submitted two more change applications, with the last one coming in late August and stating that Tighrine was the 100 percent owner. Those applications have not been approved either.

The Roo-Bar show-cause order lists a series of reported violations stretching through the year.

In January, Denver Police Department officers responded to a fight involving ten people. Savino Aragon, a patron of the club, was apparently upset when a woman he was with was not allowed back into the club. That woman pushed another man in the club's parking lot, and then Aragon punched a security guard twice, which led to the guard punching Aragon. After that, Aragon and the woman he was with started to fight other patrons, ultimately leading to Aragon getting punched several times in the face by an unknown man. "Despite providing the surveillance video to law enforcement, the license establishment was not being cooperative in assisting law enforcement in their investigation of the incident," the show-cause order notes.

"As you know, people are fighting inside the airport, inside planes, everywhere. I saw a fight on the train, the one to the airport," Tighrine responds.

The next incident cited in the order occurred in February, when police conducted a liquor license and business license check at Roo-Bar. Two security guards working there that night — both of them from a company called Hightower Security — were unable to show security guard licenses and admitted to not having them, according to the city. One of those guards was wearing "a tac vest covering his upper torso" and had a "knife in the front pocket of the tac vest."

"I hired Hightower. I'm not responsible for any of those guys," says Tighrine. "I pay Hightower. If anything happens, it’s on them."

That same night, a manager named Nicholas Montanaro told Denver police officers that he "was aware of a situation in which a firearm entered the licensed premises through a hole in the patio," the show-cause order notes. Officers then saw "a patron freely exit through an unsecured door on the patio and attempt to re-gain entrance."

"We have police staying right there by the door. I don’t know what they’re talking about. If he’s police, why doesn’t he catch them? Why are we paying them for that?" says Tighrine, who adds that he hires off-duty Denver cops every night that the club is open.

According to the show-cause order, that night the police also noticed that "there were numerous tobacco hookahs in the back storage room" and notified management that "a license would be necessary to allow patrons to use the hookah pipes within the establishment."

"No, no, no, you don’t need a separate license for that," Tighrine says. "We sell electronic hookah. You can do that. It has to be no charcoal, and it has to be no nicotine."

The next incident occurred in April, when a security guard removed people who were fighting inside the club, only to see additional fights break out in the parking lot. Two security guards were then punched by an unknown individual, and one of the guards had to go to the hospital, according to the city.

In early May,  DPD officers were called to Roo-Bar to monitor the flow of leaving patrons.

"While at the location, an unknown suspect described as: a Hispanic male, approximately five feet two inches, wearing a white plaid shirt, and having a black handgun in his front waistband, unlawfully discharged a 40 mm bullet from a handgun while in the parking lot of the Roo-Bar Lounge. Upon further investigation, it was later discovered that said Hispanic male had engaged in an argument inside of the licensed establishment that led to employees of the establishment trying to stop the argument. The Hispanic male then left the licensed establishment and proceeded to a gray Jeep that was parked in the parking lot. The Hispanic male then entered the passenger door and obtained the gun. Shortly thereafter, a shot was heard and a spent .40 caliber cartridge casing was found in the parking lot," the show-cause order states.

"Nothing happened inside our unit; everything happened outside," Tighrine responds.

In June, Denver police responded to reports of a fight between two women, which began as a verbal altercation over people cutting in the bathroom line and then led to a fight in the parking lot. Both women were cited for public fighting and disturbing the peace, according to the order.

In July, police responded to a call of shots fired in the parking lot outside Roo-Bar. The incident started when a man identified as Isaiah Adams was unable to pay his tab. "Mr. Adams had been physically escorted out of the bar after physically assaulting one of the staff members in the face," according to the order. "Upon Mr. Adams leaving the establishment, he was seen joining another group in the parking lot, which began throwing gang signs to another group in the parking lot. Shortly after this exchange between the groups, several gun shots were heard. Although officers were able to recover several fired casings, no known persons or property were discovered to be injured and/or damaged."

When police conducted another inspection in July, they came into contact with a person who initially identified himself as a security guard for Roo-Bar, "but then stated that he was just conducting crowd control despite officers having observed [the man] conducting pat-down searches of individuals entering the establishment," the order states. The individual, Sean Ford, then said he was working for a security guard company by the name of Denver's Finest, which Tighrine runs, but had not yet received his license.

According to the order, officers spoke with a man named Anthony Wilson "who was observed wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with 'SECURITY' written in bold white lettering on both sleeves, radio earpiece and lapel mic, bullet resistant vest over the security sweatshirt, tan tactical pants, tactical belt with handgun holster and double magazine carrier, handcuff case, and ASP baton." Wilson was able to provide a security guard license, which noted that he worked for Invicta Acquisition LLC. The order notes that there was no evidence that Invicta had been hired by Roo-Bar to provide security that night, "nor that Mr. Wilson was permitted by the Department to provide security services while carrying a firearm at Roo-Bar."

However, Tighrine says that this security guard was working for a company hired by the landlord to provide security for the entire strip mall. "We pay the mall to hire security of the management company," he adds.

In August, the DPD responded to a call regarding shots fired outside the club. "Officers made contact with a hired patrol officer who indicated that he had heard approximately six (6) gun shots and then saw a male throwing a black handgun into a four-door sedan before getting into said vehicle and driving off," the order reports. "Shortly thereafter, another gun shot was heard from another black sedan that had been associated with the other vehicle that drove off. Based upon the shots being fired, officers were able to locate a car owned by a person hired to conduct patrol for the entire property [that] had been struck in the radiator by one of the bullets. No other businesses are known to be operating past midnight at said location."

Later that month, shots were again reported. "Officers were able to recover numerous shell casings and were able to identify that a patron of the licensed establishment had her vehicle damaged by 2 bullets and sustained some cuts from the broken glass while she was in her car; and that one patron had been shot in the leg while fleeing from the gunshots. A suspected bullet was discovered to have struck the southwest facing window of the Well Haven Veterinary Office," the order notes.

After that, the Denver City Attorney's Office attempted to get Roo-Bar Lounge declared a public nuisance, and the bar was closed temporarily. But in October, a judge lifted the city's temporary restraining order, allowing Roo-Bar to continue operating. On the weekend that it reopened, according to the order, the DPD  observed patrons "blocking the entry to the apartment building in the same vicinity of the licensed premises; and an aggravated assault on a male who was standing outside of the licensed establishment when he was struck with a baseball bat from patrons that came out of the bar."

"Violence is taking over the city, you know that," responds Tighrine, who's continuing to operate the club Wednesday through Sunday.

At the December 1 hearing, Roo-Bar will have to respond to charges that it violated both Colorado and Denver law in relation to permitting disorderly conduct — specifically, physical fights on the premises — and to having unlicensed security guards working at the business. The club could face license suspension or revocation and/or fines.

Tighrine says that he's been told outright by police officers that the City of Denver doesn't want hip-hop clubs: "They told me, they’re going after any club that’s doing hip-hop."

If he can't play hip-hop, he can't keep the club going financially, Tighrine says, adding that he's started to consider selling Roo-Bar.

But in the meantime, he hopes the case can come to an amicable resolution. "We’re going to see how we can resolve this," he concludes. "We’ll see what they’re going to say."

Here's the full show-cause order: