CLEVELAND, Ohio – A shuttered Flats bar is attempting to fight back legally against Cleveland officials who closed its doors after a shootout injured six people following the Browns season opener.
Play Bar & Grill took its case to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday, challenging what its attorney called the arbitrary way city officials boarded up the bar within hours of four people spraying bullets across West 10th Street.
The bar’s owners sought a temporary restraining order against the city over the closing. A day later, however, the owner of the property terminated the lease with the bar after sending two notices over the summer about violence at the establishment.
Based on Flats East Development’s move, it is unclear how far the bar’s legal fight will go.
The case is before Judge Peter Corrigan, who is to decide a hearing schedule.
Joseph Morse, the attorney for the bar, said he was surprised by the rush to judgment against the bar.
“It all seems to have happened so very rapidly,” he said. “Without any suggestion of reason, (the bar’s owners) were told that they were going to be closed and boarded up.”
On Thursday, George Kimson, the president of Flats East Development, said it warned the bar about “a number of incidents occurring at or near” the establishment this summer.
Hours after his statement, crews removed the boards. But the building remained closed.
This week, Cleveland Public Safety Director Wayne Drummond sent a letter to Play Bar & Grill’s owners explaining why city officials acted the way they did.
Before the Sunday shooting, Drummond said there were three violent incidents this summer that showed the bar created “an imminent danger to the life and health of residents and visitors,” according to the letter.
The first was June 6, when he said a bar patron pulled a gun on a valet driver. The second was July 5, when Drummond said there was a shooting inside the bar. A third report came in August, when a fight broke out there.
Morse said there was never a shooting in the bar. The bar’s employees said the incident involving the valet took place away from the establishment. And they stressed that Sunday’s incident also took place away from the bar, adding that people ran to the business to get away from the gunshots.
The bar’s owners have said the establishment has become a scapegoat for the incident, as the city lacked the officers needed to protect the Flats after the Browns game.
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