Calvin Hollins, Jr. and Dwain Kyles, owners of the former E2 nightclub (Sun-Times) where 21 patrons died as a result of a stampede, will both serve two-year prison sentences for a housing court violation.
The second floor to the club was barred from use months before the deadly incident but Hollins and Kyles ignored the court order. On Feb. 17, 2003, a security guard shot pepper spray into a crowd in an attempt to break up a fight but instead triggered a stampede down the stairs leading to the first floor exit.
The judge stated that this was a "willful" and "conscious" contempt of a court order. Kyles originally was charged with involuntary manslaughter (Sun-Times) but charges were dropped because so-called "key evidence" was barred by a court decision. Hollins was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter charges.
Prosecutors had argued for five-year sentences for the felony charges, then three-year sentences, until settling on two years.
Both Hollins and Kyles say they will appeal.
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), state Sen. Donne Trotter and Jonathan Jackson (son of Rev. Jesse Jackson) testified on behalf of Kyles, asking the judge not to send him to prison.
Rush even suggested that racism played a role in the sentencing. He wondered why the city called for riot personnel instead of a rescue team in response to emergency calls, if it had something to do with E2 being a predominantly black nightclub.
But it's impossible to ignore E2's "history of code violations," says Buildings Department spokeswoman Kristen Lobbins-Cabanban in another Sun-Times article. Several code violations, she said, pertained to a lack of sufficient exits.
And firefighters arriving at the scene of the stampede found "locked or blocked" exit doors.
-
Involuntary Manslaughter (FindLaw)
-
Cook County Housing Court (Cook County)
-
Chicago criminal defense attorneys (FindLaw)
