From The PalmBeach Post

Club Boca may face music over incidents
By ANDREW ABRAMSON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Aside from the massive police presence, hourlong line of patrons and, yes, a helicopter circling the area, it's really your typical Wednesday night in this neighborhood just west of Boca Raton.
But while most of the area sleeps, Club Boca is just getting started.

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Richard Graulich/Staff Photographer
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Club Boca patrons walk around sheriff's cruisers to get back to their cars after one of the club's popular Wednesday hip-hop nights.
Proposed club law's key points
1. Club owners will be required to pay for a certain amount of security depending on the number of violations in a 12-month period.
2. Clubs that accumulate a certain number of citations will be required to pay for enhanced lighting in the parking lot.
3. Patrons under 21 years old will be banned from all nightclubs.
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Now, law enforcement, city and county officials want to tame the party.
Shortly before midnight, the line grows.
"Ladies, don't wait in line," one bouncer shouts. "It's $20 to skip."
Since women as young as 18 get in free on Wednesdays, a pack of teens debates whether to spend $20 apiece to avoid the aggravation.
Finally, they decide to wait. They'll still have hours to party inside.
A group of guys makes a grand entrance, circling the property twice with screeching tires before parking and heading right to the skip line. Men already pay a $20 cover charge, but what's another $20? It's Wednesday night.
Then the final step before entering the party zone. Security performs a pat-down - no body part fully spared - and checks everyone's shoes for drugs and weapons.
Only then can the partygoer enter the land of Dirty South hip-hop, girls grinding on dancer poles and guys rolling dice behind the outdoor bar with stacks of $20 bills on the line.
"It's jumping till 4 o'clock," said Nette Jacobs, 19, of Delray Beach. "People come here from all over because it's open late."
But it's not the inside of Club Boca that has city and county commissioners trying to make the 2-decades-old club at Palmetto Park and Powerline roads pay more for security.
Since 2005, there have been five shootings that authorities have linked to people leaving Club Boca.
The most recent occurred March 6, when a man was wounded after two people opened fire on his car on Interstate 95. The shooting took place at 4:15 a.m., after the suspects and victims had left Club Boca's hip-hop night.
On Oct. 18, as many as 100 patrons left Club Boca and continued the party on the ramp from Palmetto Park Road to southbound I-95, parking their cars and blasting music before several men opened fire, seriously injuring one victim.
Club Boca pays for four security officers at the door, but the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office says it's not nearly enough.
So the sheriff's office has been sending as many as 15 to 20 deputies to the area. To avoid paying overtime, troops are pulled from as far away as Belle Glade.
Club Boca also has a hip-hop night on Saturdays, but Wednesday, when there's far less competition from other clubs, is the night that draws the biggest crowds.
Sheriff's Capt. Matt Eisenberg said deputies issue more than 100 traffic citations and make DUI, drug and battery arrests in the parking lot at Club Boca on the typical Wednesday night.
The county sends a patrol helicopter to shine its light on the area once the club winds down around 4 a.m.
"There are helicopters flying around, and I've been woken up at least five or six times," said neighbor Christopher Hermon, 43. "Just driving over there and trying to get something from the store, the cops route everybody around. Then there's the garbage in the neighborhood, broken bottles. It goes on every week."
County Commissioner Mary McCarty has been instrumental in drawing up an ordinance that will force club owners in unincorporated areas to pay for a yet-to-be-determined amount of security that would depend on number of citations handed out in a club and its parking lot over a 12-month period.
"This has been a pain in my backside and the community's backside for 18 years," McCarty said. "That may then help to make it financially unfeasible for a club that is attracting gang members and that kind of thing."
Club Boca owner Richard Rossi is furious with the proposal, saying the club is doing everything in its power to keep patrons safe.
Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have visited the club and found no violations, and the club strictly enforces the drinking-age law, he said.
Rossi said his club is not responsible for what people do once they leave.
He said shootings that happen miles away cannot be blamed on Club Boca.
McCarty said county attorneys agreed and decided that the club could be held responsible only for incidents inside the club or in the parking lot.
Many of the arrests take place when deputies pull over vehicles for such things as having illegal tint on their windows and then find drugs or weapons. Rossi has claimed racial profiling, which the sheriff's office denies, and said his responsibility should begin with the security detail at the door.
"They're saying you have to have security people. I have it," Rossi said. "You have to have cameras. I have it. I've always had the detail."
"To say that I'm drawing them here or it's my fault, it's crazy," Rossi said. "I don't condone any of this. Change the laws; make it illegal to carry a handgun in a car. These guys are all a danger."
Another rule in the proposed ordinance bans underage patrons from clubs.
Club Boca allows women, but not men, to enter the club if they're at least 18. It's a common practice in clubs to attract more women, which in turn encourages more men to attend.
"The ladies that are 18 to 21, which are the eye candy, you're going to leave them out of the equation," Rossi said. "You do that for the whole (unincorporated) county, and a whole lot of people are going to suffer."
McCarty has no sympathy. "Using underage kids as bait?" she said. "That's not an argument that moves me."
Rossi says that the under-21 crowd would move to house parties, which could open up even more problems.
"We'll take our chances," McCarty said. "These people that come to Club Boca come from Miami-Dade, Fort Lauderdale, and maybe the house parties will be in their neighborhood. Club Boca is importing the problem, and it's not really Boca kids. It's coming from other areas."
McCarty said the ordinance would call for more lighting to "turn the parking lot into daylight" and eliminate the need for the helicopter.
For Jacobs, the 19-year-old from Delray Beach, this could be one of her last trips.
She said the law enforcement presence is already affecting the crowd - down from 800 at its peak to about 400 in recent weeks - and with new laws possibly on the way, she won't be able to party there anyway.
Rossi and most of his staff say they don't particularly like Dirty South hip-hop - a branch of rap that's perfect for clubs, with bouncy and fast beats, and draws criticism for its derogatory lyrics.
But Rossi said he's just trying to make a living.
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