CHARLESTON — The strip club where off-duty New Jersey police officers hung out before a fatal wrong-way car crash was on the verge of being shuttered by the state after several bar fights — one involving the pole that held up the club’s velvet rope.
Curves Gentlemen's Club, at 2945 Arthur Kill Rd., was issued violations by the State Liquor Authority for three brawls inside and just in front of the club, including one where three people where beaten with the metal pole, according to the SLA and prosecutors.
The fights led the SLA to issue violations to Curves in November for "suffering or permitting an altercation and/or assault to occur" and failing to "exercise adequate supervision over conduct" at the spot, according to the SLA.
The first incident happened on June 14, 2014, when Jerald Long, 28, Jamal Carmona, 27, and Nathaniel Calhoun, 32, fought three other patrons in the club, prosecutors said.
Long swung the velvet rope stanchion wildly at the victims, causing a fractured eye socket, a broken nose, fractured ribs and other injuries, prosecutors said. During the brawl, Carmona grabbed a rock and shattered a glass door at the club, prosecutors said.
Long and Carmona were charged with gang assault, criminal mischief and assault.
The case against Calhoun was dropped after he was fatally shot in the head and killed in July, a spokesman for the District Attorney said.
On Sept. 30, a 30-year-old man was assaulted inside Curves and taken to Staten Island University Hospital North in stable condition, police said. Eight days later, a 27-year-old man was assaulted inside the club and suffered cuts to his face, police said.
No arrests were made in either of those cases.
On Friday, three off-duty Linden, N.J., police officers and a civilian were partying at the club before they headed home. An officer behind the wheel drove the wrong way on a Staten Island highway and smashed into a tractor-trailer, police said.
Hours before, one of the officers posted pictures of three bourbon shots on his Instagram page.
"The 3 of us are decent people. There's a decent woman out there for each of us," Pedro Abad wrote in the post. "I want to settle down. We all do. So here's to finding that which we all hope for."
Joseph Rodriguez, 28, who was seated on the front passenger side of the vehicle, died at the scene, according to the NYPD. Frank Viggiano, 28, a Linden police officer, was taken to Staten Island University Hospital South and pronounced dead shortly after, police said.
Abad, 27, and Patrick Kudlac, 23, were listed in critical condition at Staten Island University Hospital, Newsday reported.
Aside from the fights last year, Curves has had other violent incidents inside.
In 2010, two Staten Islanders sued the strip club after employees there pummeled them on New Year's Day "without any just cause or provocation," the Staten Island Advance reported.
The club was also listed off-limits for NYPD officers and is on the NYPD’s list of “corruption-prone locations," the New York Post reported.
Thomas Wolf, a manager at the club, told the Post that there wasn't any corruption at the place and they were off-limits to police because of a 10-year-old brawl inside.
“The police don’t like us because of an incident that occurred here about 10 years ago involving an off-duty cop,” Wolf told the tabloid. “He got into an alcohol-related fight, went out to his car and fired on the building.”
Wolf or an owner for the club could not be reached for comment.
A lawyer who represented the club at its SLA hearings, Neil Visoky, said he did not work with the owners anymore and had no comment for the story.
The club was slapped with a $4,500 fine in June for code violations for not having a kitchen even though they applied for one, the SLA said.
The SLA set a hearing for April 3 in front of its board, which could vote to strip the club of its license and administer fines.
