Violent crowd brings police from 4 towns
Dozens involved in fights outside Rt. 35 night spot, police say
BY MICHAEL ACKER
Staff Writer

MICHAEL ACKER Police have been called to the Colosseum Nite Club in Sayreville for three reports of violent incidents since November.

Some 80 people were involved in a fracas outside the Colosseum nightclub recently, according to Sayreville police.

Officers responded to the Route 35 club, which recently started providing live adult dancing entertainment, at 1:55 a.m. Dec. 28, to find several hundred people in the parking lot.

Numerous fights were in progress, police said, and all available police units in Sayreville were dispatched to the location to quell the disturbance, even the two officers working a specific DWI patrol.

Officers were significantly outnumbered and spread thinly across the parking lot to make an impact on the number of combatants, according to police reports, so Perth Amboy, South Amboy and Woodbridge police were dispatched to assist the local officers.

Meanwhile, Old Bridge police responded to an unrelated

disturbance at the Skytop Gardens apartments because no Sayreville officers were available, according to Sayreville Police Sgt. Robert Lasko.

Lasko said the majority of the people in the parking lot either refused to disperse or were slow to leave, leading to one arrest. Police charged Tyshon Blackmon, 20, of Baltimore, Md., with disorderly conduct outside the club in the area of Oak Street.

Inside the club, a 47-year-old bouncer from Jersey City was knocked unconscious, police said. Police found two broken champagne bottles on the floor where Casanova was lying. The suspect in the aggravated assault is still at large.

Police found fellow employees of the establishment watching over the bouncer, who was regaining consciousness when a medical intensive care unit arrived to transport him to Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy for treatment.

Police reported that the bouncer had been hit on the side of his head and had a bruise from the middle of his forehead to the top of his cheek. His left eye also had bruising and was starting to close up, police said.

Also inside the club, officers found a small clear plastic bag used to hold drugs on the floor. Residue in the bag has not been tested to confirm that it is an illicit substance.

Elsewhere in the club, police found 30 or more patrons still drinking several minutes after the borough's regulated 2 a.m. closing time for bars. Club employees then began to clear the area, police said.

Police are not sure how the disturbance got started, but they noted in reports that club security employees were not wearing clothing that would identify themselves as such. The Colosseum does not have a stipulation requiring security staff to wear identifying clothing, according to police.

Attempts by the Suburban to reach the owner of the club for comment were unsuccessful.

The incident marked the third time police were dispatched to the club on reports of violence since late November. A Shrewsbury man was shot in the stomach outside the club on Nov. 22, and one of the dancers employed by the club told police that she was assaulted in an unrelated incident on the same night. No one has been arrested in the Nov. 22 shooting.

The incident could have an effect on the Colosseum's liquor license when it comes up for renewal, according to Sayreville council President Thomas Pollando.

"What we are looking for is the full investigation on what happened, and we are waiting for the chief to get it to us. Any type of violence has to be looked at," Pollando said.

The council may have to impose stricter conditions on the club in light of recent incidents, he noted.

"We will not tolerate this type of stuff," Pollando said. "We realize it happens, but we want to control it."

The club can prevent patrons from staying past closing time by enforcing a 1:30 a.m. last call, he said. Offering valet parking, he noted, would help prevent violence outside the club and facilitate a more timely exit from the area.

"They need to find a way of making sure that by 2 a.m. people are not only out of the club, but out of the parking lot," Pollando said.

The club received approval from the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment to expand its entertainment offerings to include strip dancing last year in order to make the business more lucrative, Pollando said. The club's live entertainment use is grandfathered.

"We are not looking to have that," Pollando said. "Trust me, no one wants more strip clubs and juice clubs. Whatever is in there is grandfathered in and we are not looking to have any others."