Pocono News Section

Owners, Neighbors Differ Over Bar's Role in Violence

Owners, Neighbors Differ Over Bar's Role in Violence - Monday, October 12, 2009 at 6:05PM EST

Reported by: Andy Mehalshick
Monday, Oct 12, 2009 @ 06:05pm EDT
HAZLETON, LUZERNE COUNTY -- Police say the La Cantina nightclub in Hazleton is a magnet for crime. But the club owners say they're being unfairly targeted.

They say they can't control what happens outside their nightclub and they insist they will work with the city to fight crime in their neighborhood.

La Cantina nightclub has been open for about a year. And in that time, city officials say they can connect at least 10 shootings and other violence to the nightclub. The most recent incident happened early Saturday. A group of men fired at each other. One of them was stabbed.

The owners of La Cantina, Ramone and Maria Penn, say they are the real victims and only want to run a nice club for good people. ÒWe were here inside the bar. Everything was fine in the bar. Everybody went out at 2:00. The shooting, everything happened after we closed our doors," said Maria.

The Penns say they do what they can inside their nightclub to keep customers safe. But the outside is another story altogether. "I can't control what happened outside my bar. WeÕve got securityÉ they search everyone. People in here, we put them out at 2. At 2:20 we're closed. The shooting Friday happened outside. They weren't inside Cantina," she added.

The Penns say they want to meet with Mayor Lou Barletta to get to the truth and make downtown a safer place. Ramon Penn said, "There was never fighting inside La Cantina, never. Now everything happens between people outside the Cantina, two blocks, three blocks away but they say it happedend in Cantina. It's not fair."

The Hazleton mayor tells Eyewitness News that under state law they have to prove that the crimes in this area have a connection to La Cantina to classify the club as a nuisance bar. And he says they can and will do just that.