A Prince George’s County Circuit Court judge denied a request by the owner of a Capitol Heights nightclub to suspend the new law county officials used to close the venue after a drive-by shooting on Aug. 8 left one woman dead. Attorneys for MSG nightclub requested a restraining order and permanent injunction of the law, known as the dance hall bill, on Monday.
Using the new law, Prince George’s County police and the Department of Environmental Resources shuttered MSG for operating as a dance hall without a proper license the night of the shooting.
A judge denied the owner’s request at a hearing Monday afternoon, according to several county officials.
Department of Environmental Resources officials issued a violation notice to MSG owner Eric Pickens on Aug. 8. The club must remain closed until it can obtain the proper license or win its appeal of the citation.
A hearing before a new appeals board created by the dance hall bill — comprising Department of Environmental Resources Director Samuel Wynkoop, Police Chief Mark Magaw and Fire Chief Marc Bashoor — is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Jasmine Banks, 20, was shot in the head as she left MSG the morning of Aug. 8. Another bystander was shot but suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The shots were fired from a vehicle traveling eastbound on Central Avenue, according to police officials.
Pickens has said he suspects that seven or eight people to whom security denied entry that night may have retaliated by firing shots at the club.
MSG is the first venue officials have closed using the law, which County Executive Rushern Baker signed as emergency legislation on July 22, in time for police to begin enforcing it this summer.
The bill is designed to make owners, event promoters and others responsible for security at dance halls more culpable for the violence occurring around them.
Before Banks’ death, 61 homicides had been linked to the dance halls since 2005, The Washington Examiner reported when the council was considering the legislation.
It took less than three weeks for the county to find the first instance in which it could apply the law.
“The law was put into place … because [of] the sort of situation we were experiencing in the county,” Magaw said. “We were trying to be prudent in our application of this law, and we believe we have enough evidence to enforce it.”
Several calls to Pickens and his attorneys were not returned.
