Man charged in bottle club raid
YOUNGSTOWN — A man who police said identified himself as the president of a bottle club has been cited into municipal court on a charge of violating a city ordinance.
Charged with operating an illegal bottle club, a second-degree misdemeanor, was Sean P. Hall, 34, of Jacobs Road, who was arrested in a Vice Squad raid at the North Side club late Friday.
Responding to complaints of an illegal bottle club at 1021 Wick Ave., the former State Chevrolet building, city police, Humility of Mary Health Partners police and a fire inspector raided that location about 11:40 p.m.
Strobe-type disco lights were flashing, music was playing, and about 35 people, many of them drinking or dancing, were inside the Knight Riders Motorcycle Club when police arrived.
Police confiscated the alcoholic beverages they found on the premises, together with several bags of suspected marijuana and crack cocaine they said unidentified people had dropped on the floor when the raid began.
Also seized were a handwritten cardboard bar price list and postcards announcing a party that evening at that location.
The beverage stock included 10 cases of beer, two coolers full of beer, a keg of beer, and 12 liquor bottles, police said. The club had four propane torpedo heaters and three electric baseboard heaters, police added.