Published on: Thursday, January 26, 2012

By Jim Davis

The owner of a Seat Pleasant nightclub along with his manager were found guilty last Wednesday in a Prince George’s County court for allowing dancing and operating a nightclub without the proper permits.

Eric Pickens, owner of the Music, Sports and Games nightclub in the 7900 block of  Central Avenue and his manger Darryl Robinson were each fined $1,000 and sentenced to one year of probation and a six-months suspended jail sentence.

The MSG night club was the first nightclub in Prince George’s County to be closed under an emergency bill passed  by Prince George’s County Council in July to give police and other officials the right to close down nightclubs that are a threat to public safety. The bill also allows club owners and managers to be charged criminally.

The nightclub has been the scene of a number of fights and shootings. On Aug. 8, police were called to the nightclub for a reported shooting. Officers located Jasmine Jerona Banks, 20, of District Heights, suffering from gunshot wounds to her body. She was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.

On Aug. 9, the Prince George’s County Department of Environmental Resources closed the nightclub, and Pickens, Robinson, Ronald Dixon and Jerome Tillery, all of Capitol Heights, were criminally charged with operating a dance hall without a license.

In 2007, former County Executive Jack B. Johnson tried to close nine nightclubs under a county law that allowed officials to shut down businesses deemed “an imminent danger and threat to the health, safety and welfare of the public.”

A Circuit Court judge stopped five of the closures, saying officials failed to offer specific grounds for the closures. The clubs and the county eventually reached a deal, and the establishments were allowed to stay open.

Maj. George Nader, Prince George’s County Police Department District III commander, said shootings fell by 29 percent in the months after the club was shut down. In 2011, seven of the county’s homicides were linked to nightclubs or dance halls, as were three in 2010 and four in 2009.

“For far too long, we have had too much violence and public disturbance related to dance halls in our community,” said County Executive Rushern L. Baker, III. “This bill gives our Department of Environmental Resources, along with our Police and Fire Departments, the added tools to effectively monitor, patrol, and mitigate public safety issues that originate and/or are connected to dance halls. I want to thank the Prince George’s County Council, and specifically thanks Council Member Karen Toles who submitted the bill for their advocacy on behalf of the safety of our residents.”