Go Go club owner cancels hearing

Staff report

Youngstown

An injunction hearing scheduled for this morning to determine whether the Go Go Girls Cabaret could continue serving alcohol was canceled.

Sebastian Rucci, club owner, said Tuesday that he decided to cancel the hearing, after the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Liquor Control asked to postpone it to another day.

The division of liquor control obtained a search warrant and confiscated all alcohol from the club on Dec. 2 on the grounds that the Go Go’s liquor license was defunct.

For now, the club is open as “Bring your own beer,” which Rucci said has its benefits.

“We can have later hours and reduced costs, so it’s working out,” he said.

Rucci has been in and out of state and federal courts over the past three years appealing attempts to revoke the club’s permit.

Rucci was first granted an injunction against revocation in August 2009 by Judge Ann Aldrich of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, allowing the club to remain open.

On Nov. 15, Judge John R. Adams, who took over the case after Judge Aldrich died, rejected a motion filed by the The Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Liquor Control, which had maintained the case was resolved in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, making Rucci’s appeal moot.

Judge Adams ruled that he lacked jurisdiction while the case was on appeal in Franklin County, and upheld the injunction, according to court records.

Rucci said that instead of drawing out yet another court case, he decided to amended his original complaint against the division of liquor control to include a charge against the officer who obtained the search warrant.

“The officer violated our Fourth Amendment rights with a defective search warrant,” he said. “It omitted information.”

Rucci said the search warrant affidavit wasn’t provided to him on the day of the search, another violation of his rights.