More fights, injuries reported at Colosseum Mayor says he will call for liquor license to be revoked BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer Two months after Sayreville officials placed several conditions on its liquor license, the Colosseum was again the scene of violence last weekend. Police were called to the nightclub on Routes 9/35 at 2:05 a.m. Sunday and found two injured people from two separate fights, according to police reports. Officers also reported that a security guard was injured in an incident that occurred in front of the club, which was holding a Saturday night event that included hip-hop and Latin music. According to accounts given to the authorities, a large group of men who arrived at the club in limousines around 1 a.m. were refused admission to the club, and later returned with baseball bats, smashed the club's front doors and destroyed the canopy that covers the walkway. The club had reportedly received information from police Friday that these men were expected to go to the club Saturday and that they should not be allowed to enter the establishment. Police did not receive a call related to the problems at the club until shortly after 2 a.m., when dispatchers were told that gunshots were fired inside the establishment. However, club management denied that any violence or gunfire occurred inside the club, according to police reports. The investigation into that matter is ongoing. Police officers from Sayreville, Woodbridge and South Amboy arrived at the scene to find a large fight taking place in the parking lot. The units cleared the parking lot and ordered patrons to vacate the area. Police found a 33-year-old Linden man near the rear door inside of the club bleeding from his face. The victim had swelling around both eyes and told police his chest hurt. The victim was reportedly assaulted in the rear parking lot, but did not know what happened to him. Colosseum owner Anthony Acciardi reportedly told police that he found the victim unconscious in the rear parking lot and carried him into the club. The Morgan First Aid Squad transported the man to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick. Another victim flagged down police in the parking lot and requested medical attention for a facial injury that he sustained after an unknown assailant punched him in the face. The Morgan First Aid Squad treated him for a bloody nose and transported him to Raritan Bay Medical Center, Perth Amboy. The Colosseum, which started offering strip dancing last year, was the scene of what police described as a riot and a shooting in late 2006. Months later, on May 3, an unknown suspect reportedly fired a gun at an unoccupied car in the parking lot. The Colosseum was ordered to shut down on May 4 for four business days, with police determining that the current operation of the club posed a danger to the community and had become a public nuisance. In June, the Borough Council renewed the club's liquor license. Acciardi, the owner, agreed to more than a dozen new conditions recommended by police in light of the incidents over the past year. Nearby Club Abyss also faced charges at the liquor license hearings in June and agreed to the same conditions after a riot and a stabbing occurred at that venue. Republican Mayor Kennedy O'Brien told the Suburban that the all-Democrat Borough Council should have adopted his proposed ordinance earlier this year that would give each business three chances before its liquor license is pulled. He said he will call for the revocation of the Colosseum's liquor license at a September council meeting. "I think that we should pull their [liquor] license," he said. O'Brien made note of the task force that the Democrats created in May after an April 29 melee at Club Abyss. "Obviously, the task force that the council formed has no effect," O'Brien said. Councilman Daniel Buchanan, who co-chairs the task force with Councilman Dennis Grobelny, said it would be premature to come to a decision on the club's liquor license before the ongoing investigation is complete. "It is a preliminary investigation and we can't comment on it until the investigation has concluded," Buchanan said. Buchanan said O'Brien should also wait for more details to emerge. "Then you are just jumping to conclusions and getting people talking without the facts, and nobody should be doing that," Buchanan said. "It is irresponsible to point fingers at this point, like the mayor is doing, until the investigation is complete." Council President Thomas Pollando said the county and municipality are investigating the incident, and the borough's task force is doing it's job. "To say that the task force did not do its job is to say that the [police] chief and the captains and lieutenants didn't, because they are a part of the task force," Pollando said. "As far as I'm concerned, the task force has done a really good job." O'Brien said taxpayers should not have to pay for an additional police presence at the business. "The Colosseum continues to demonstrate that they are going to do what they are going to do, no matter how many meetings we have," O'Brien said.