6 times • JANUARY 7, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com Nightclub losing its liquor license over community complaints BY ANGELA MATUA amatua@ridgewoodtimes.com @AngelaMatua Just two weeks after Rego Park’s Rumba Nightclub received 40 violations from a number of city agencies, the State Liquor Authority (SLA) will reportedly move to revoke the club’s liquor license. The nightclub, which has received a number of complaints from community members, elected officials and the 112th Precinct, was visited by the NYPD, FDNY, Department of Health and SLA on Dec. 18 and Dec. 19, 2015, when each city agency found several violations. Those violations include unauthorized alterations to the bar; safety violations including a failure to maintain fire extinguishers, an obstructed exit and exposed electrical wiring; and a number of health code violations including no food protection certificate holder and mildew in the ice machine. According to a letter written by Deputy Inspector Judith R. Harrison, commanding officer of the 112th Precinct, between Jan. 1, 2015, and Dec. 27, 2015, there have been 90 complaints about Rumba via the 311 system. “Rumba continues to operate their business in a disorderly manner,” Harrison said in her letter to the SLA that The Courier obtained. “The management and owners have been invited to meetings in my office as well as to the Borough’s Night Life Best Practices meetings in an effort to provide them with information and guidance as to how they should be operating. Things have not gotten better.” Harrison added that the patrons are “loud and disorderly” and that they create “dangerous parking conditions along Woodhaven Boulevard.” At a hearing Tuesday with the SLA, an attorney for Rumba Nightclub voluntarily offered the cancellation of his client’s license. This was done primarily to avoid the stigma that comes with a canceled license and the legal consequences that would proceed, according to a spokesperson for Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz, who has written letters to the SLA asking them to revoke the club’s license. Frank Gulluscio, district manager of Community Board 6, said previously that the club has been a problem since it opened about two years ago. “It’s a major nuisance, major problem to the community, particularly to the residents of that block,” Gulluscio said in The Courier’s previous report about Rumba. “From building problems to quality-of-life problems, noise, urination, fights, being cited this weekend for over 40 violations and they just don’t care.” It will take the SLA two to four weeks to process this cancellation request. Once it is processed, the cancellation order will be served upon Rumba and they will not be allowed to sell liquor. “Let today’s event serve as notice upon businesses that they cannot just come into our neighborhood and be a disruptive presence without consequences,” Koslowitz said in a statement issued Jan. 5. RIDGEWOOD TIMES/Photo by Angela Matua The Rumba nightclub on Woodhaven Boulevard in Rego Park will have its liquor license revoked after receiving 40 violations in one weekend last month. Three arrested for machete assault on Ridgewood street BY ROBERT POZARYCKI rpozarycki@ridgewoodtimes.com @robbpoz Three individuals remain locked up on assault and robbery charges for allegedly attacking a 21-year-old man with a machete during a New Year’s Day mugging at a Ridgewood street corner, prosecutors said. Hamler DeJesus, 19, of Ridgewood and William Gonzalez, 22, of Ozone Park, along with an unidentified 14-year-old male juvenile offender, were arrested shortly after the bloody mugging, which occurred at 3:18 a.m. on Jan. 1 at the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and Palmetto Street. According to information that the Queens District Attorney’s office provided, the three suspects and four unidentified perpetrators approached the victim at the scene, then punched him about the body and knocked him to the ground. One of the defendants then pulled out a machete and slashed the victim numerous times, police said, cutting the victim’s face, right shoulder, back and chest. During the assault, authorities noted, the perpetrators removed the victim’s right earring, two gold chains from his neck and $200 in cash from his pants pockets. Officers from the 104th Precinct came upon the mugging in progress and apprehended DeJesus, Gonzalez and the juvenile offender, sources familiar with the investigation stated. They were each subsequently charged on first-degree counts of gang assault, assault and robbery, as well as second-degree robbery and criminal possession of a weapon. All three suspects were arraigned on New Year’s Day before Judge Gia Morris; Gonzalez was ordered held on $25,000 bail, while DeJesus and the juvenile offender were each ordered held on $10,000 bail. They are scheduled to return to court on Jan. 13. Others involved in the mugging remain at large, and the investigation is ongoing, prosecutors said.
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