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Witnesses tell of drug use, deals at Go Go
TweetBy Elise Franco
YOUNGSTOWN — Austintown Township officials say the Go Go Cabaret is a public nuisance and should remain closed.
Judge Lou A. D’Apolito heard from six witnesses Friday during an injunction hearing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Testimony will resume Monday morning.
The witnesses testified for county prosecutors seeking to keep the cabaret closed.
Police raided the club about two weeks ago, making arrests on drug allegations.
The cabaret has been in operation since December 2007 and has been the source of police, fire and zoning complaints. The prosecution said the business has become an Austintown nuisance.
Atty. Robert Bush Jr. said the prosecution plans to show proof of not only drug use and trafficking inside the club, but also prostitution, underage drinking and lewd behavior.
“Large amounts of [bodily fluids], condoms and men’s underwear were found in the fantasy rooms at the cabaret,” Bush said in his opening statement. “Condoms and sex coupons were found in the owner Sebastian Rucci’s personal office.”
Most of Friday’s testimony focused on alleged drug use and trafficking inside the club by patrons and employees.
Austintown Detective Sgt. Jeff Solic said an investigation that began in December 2008 used confidential informants who bought drugs from Go Go employees.
Solic said the source would enter the club hooked up to audio and video. He or she would attempt to buy drugs from employees inside, then turn any evidence over to officers.
Solic said informants were able to purchase heroin and crack cocaine from three different cabaret employees on at least six occasions from January to May.
“On Jan. 9, the informant relayed that a dancer was selling heroin at the cabaret,” he said. “A dancer named Stephanie Yash offered coke or heroin” in $20 bags.
Solic said the informant purchased heroin from Yash, 24, of Girard, and William Watt, 25, of Girard, both cabaret employees, on several occasions.
Another informant was able to purchase both heroin and crack cocaine from a club dancer named Shannon Graves, 20, of Struthers, Solic testified.
Yash, Watt and Graves were charged with drug trafficking when the club was raided May 1.
Solic said Yash “admitted to selling to patrons at least three times. She said she routinely sold crack to other employees during business hours and outside the business.”
Austintown Trustee Lisa Oles testified that the Clarkins Drive club has had a poor reputation. “There are many people in the community who have formed an opinion,” she said. “There’s a reputation of them not being law-abiding citizens.”
Oles said shortly after the club opened that residents began calling, e-mailing and stopping her to inform her of things they’d seen at and around the Go Go.
“Initially, it was regarding distasteful means of advertising,” she said. “Then, many of the allegations relayed to me were about underaged drinking, prostitution, drug dealing and noise.”
Oles said none of the calls she’s taken in relation to the club has been positive.
When defense attorney Martin Yavorcik asked Oles if she’d ever received similar complaints about two other adult entertainment businesses, Club 76 and The Babylon, she said she had not.
Andrew Frost, Austintown fire chief; Robert Neill, former cabaret manager and the former sole shareholder; and Joseph Chamberlain and Kenneth VanHorn, both Ohio Department of Public Safety agents, were also called to testify on behalf of the prosecution.
efranco@vindy.com
Comments
I was right about Sebastian all along and I'm glad to see Robert testify against him.
I WISH THEY WOULD JUST BULLDOZE THE PLACE THE HOTEL HAS TO BE A HOLE INSIDE HASN'T BEEN OPEN FOR YEARS AND NOTHING IN THE PLACE HAS CHANGED SINCE IT WAS THE HOLIDAY INN CURTAINS & EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE NASTY THE OUTSIDE LOOKS JUST AS BAD .i'D RATHER SEE ANOTHER TRUCK STOP THERE
I am going to be the first person to leave a GREAT / POSITIVE voicemail about the GO-GO / "sportsbar" - If I was Club 76 or the Babylon (which both are law-abiding citizens) I would be hiring some of the help from the GO-GO (bar tenders)
Yours truely,
The Crazy Chicken!
“Large amounts of [bodily fluids], condoms and men’s underwear were found in the fantasy rooms at the cabaret,” Bush said in his opening statement. “Condoms and sex coupons were found in the owner Sebastian Rucci’s personal office.”
No surprise here. He is criminally tainted and was running a criminal enterprise. The veneer of just a business man who had no knowledge of what his employees were doing has been debunked!
Actually CWIS that hotel was open last year at this time. I had friends from out of town that happened to stay there. Get your facts straight. I see alot of people posting on here that are strictly speaking from their own one sided, narrow minded, ill informed opinions. This is how rumors start and then someone gets hit with a bottle. Its a sad sad world.
Apparently msot of you have not been to the club before ... If you would have been you would realize it is a tasteful club especially in comparison to the Babylon and Club 76 ... Sebastian Rucci is a great guy who is just trying to run a business ... half of the so called facts in this article are completely from the truth and the only reason this article is bashing the Go Go is because the Go Go has chosen not to speak to the newspaper .... Can't wait until the club reopens
My facts are straight was shut down by Fire Department.(hotel)
And have gone to club just to see for ourself how nasty the place was very distasteful ,just trash in there was all.
No Cwis, your facts are wrong! They have not been closed for years. Obviously your time frames are all wrong along with the rest of your half info! So how nasty was the place? Cleaner than any dive bar I've ever been in!
Calmer than you are, dude.
ha ha you must either be a former go go (worker)or maybe the owner of the rat hole.(hotel)
Anyway all anyone has to do is drive by the place is a dive has been for years.
hey we don't even want that place in youngstown. lolllllllllll
Actually Cwis, I am neither the owner nor an employee and never have been but I do live in a country that is about free enterprize and equal rights. Just because you are an Uber conservative fascist doesn't mean you have to whine about everything that doesn't fit the way you think it should be. If you think that is a rathole compared to some of the other places in town than you must be too high class to accept the middle class having fun. Get over it and don't go there. Pretty easy to do. I don't like Nazi extremists so i don't got to your meetings, pretty simple.
CWIS you actually do not know your facts ... your actually quite stupid in my eyes ... you have no idea what you are talking about ... probably because you went there and offered a girl 100 bucks to blow you and she turned you down ... the only other person that actually knows anything about this situation is elpollo ... there is no proof of anything in these articles.
Sure all of us against this are Nazi extremist.
People who get as defensive as you all must have some ties to the place or you wouldn't be so upset about anyones facts .Whatever you think are true facts or not.
I see we hit Godwin's law in 14 posts.
One lesson I learned is don't argue with fundamentalists on public forums. It's analogous to the old saying about trying to teach a pig to sing. (It accomplishes nothing and only annoys the pig.)
Once again I have absolutely no ties to this place but I also hate to see information being spread that is fabricated and fictitious. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty. I say to whomever was selling the drugs; I hope you sit in a jail cell until you can't remember what drugs are but for those who have not had any cold hard evidence against them they deserve a chance and you people with absolutely no validity to your statements are not giving them a chance based on hearsay and conjecture and nothing that you no to be true. I get defensive because I trust what is true not what you idiots make up to make yourselves feel like part of the solution when all you are is part of the problem.
Hey, there is no need to get apprehensive about the closing of the Go Go Cabaret. This isn't the only sewer in The Valley. The others are still open. Perhaps a reunion of Go Go Cabareters every year would keep the nostalgia alive.
One time in high school I bought weed in a Burger King bathroom.
LET'S BULLDOZE ALL THE BURGER KINGS IN TOWN!