Officials want jail time for club owner

CHICAGO -- City officials demanded that a judge jail the owner of the E2 nightclub for at least a year Tuesday, saying he was illegally operating the place when 21 people were killed in a stampede.\nThe city said Dwain Kyles had ignored a court order from last July to shut the place down because of building code violations that included failure to provide enough exits. City officials asked Circuit Judge Daniel Lynch to find Kyles in criminal contempt of court and put him behind bars.\n"You don't have a right to disobey a court order until someone catches you or until a disaster happens," Mayor Richard M. Daley said.\nAndre Grant, an attorney for the owners of the E2 nightclub, contended that a deal had been reached in October to keep the place open.\n"There is absolutely no such agreement, either written or oral," said Mara Georges, the city's chief lawyer. "Obviously, these people were intent on breaking the law, and they broke the law."\nShe said the city had done everything in its power to keep the nightclub closed in civil housing court.\nHowever, Police Superintendent Terry Hillard said Tuesday that police had been unaware of any order to shut down E2. He said he had even told officers to pay special attention to the location after crowd-control help was requested there.\nThe city also asked the judge to fine Kyles and his company, Le Mirage Inc., which owns the nightclub, and to fine a second company, Lesly Motors Inc., which owns the building.\nThe judge did not immediately act on the request. He said that Kyles had not yet been served with the paperwork and that he would give the two companies 10 days to respond.\nTwenty-one people were killed early Monday in a stampede down a stairwell that began when security guards broke up a fight by spraying pepper spray. A lawyer for the club operators suggested someone might have shouted a warning about a terrorist attack.\nLe Mirage also owned the Epitome restaurant downstairs. Both the nightclub and the restaurant were voluntarily closed Tuesday, said Thomas Royce, an attorney for the two businesses.