Revelry detailed at C2K hearing

Kim Smith

Friday, Sept. 15, 2000 | 12:04 p.m.

Was Club C2K the modern day equivalent of Sodom and Gomorrah? The public may never know.

Metro Police undercover officer Todd Raybuck testified about his findings in District Judge Stephen Huffaker's chambers Thursday. Although Huffaker had originally said Raybuck could testify in open court as long as TV cameras did not show his face, he later changed his mind.

Raybuck was called to testify during an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the Venetian hotel-casino should be forced to allow Club C2K to reopen.

The hearing was expected to continue today. However at 11 a.m. C2K attorney John A. Curtas said that it appeared likely the rest of the hearing would be continued about one week in the hopes that "a global settlement" can be reached among all the parties.

The attorneys and Huffaker had been meeting privately in the judge's chambers for more than an hour at press time.

According to Venetian officials, the club was shut down on Aug. 30 because they believed problems there would cost the hotel-casino its gaming license.

Raybuck was expected to testify about rampant drug use at the club, incidents of violence and inappropriate sexual behavior. A transcript of his testimony may be released at a later date.

Venetian attorney J. Stephen Peek told Huffaker in his opening remarks that during a meeting with Venetian officials in July, Raybuck warned them that, "If something doesn't happen with that club, someone is going to die there."

Peek said police found the club to be "one of, if not the worst, drug-infested nightclubs in our community."

"Our evidence will show that from the beginning an atmosphere was created that allowed, permitted and condoned excessive use of the drug Ecstasy and that they also allowed, permitted and condoned the use of the date rape drug GHB," Peek told Huffaker.

Gratuitous and anonymous sex was encouraged in the VIP lounges of the club and several violent incidents took place, including the assault of a deputy sheriff from Los Angeles, Peek said.

"We're not going to wrap ourselves in a moral flag and say that drug usage doesn't go on, but because of our gaming license, we need to control it in our environment," Peek said.

Peek said the Venetian notified its tenant, H & H of Nevada, and club owner David Horowitz about the problems and met with representatives on at least one occasion.

"There were no words of contrition," Peek said. "Their attitude was, 'It isn't happening and if it is, it's all over the community and we can't control it.' "

Curtas, who represents club owner David M. Horowitz, complained repeatedly Thursday that the Venetian was weaving a "media-friendly yarn" by throwing out such words as gratuitous sex, drugs and violence.

"Despite all of the sex appeal, this is a property case," Curtas said during his opening statement. "We've been wrongfully evicted."

Club C2K opened in October after Horowitz signed a $5 million agreement with H & H of Nevada to operate the nightclub for 20 years.

Curtas contends that that agreement makes Horowitz a sub-tenant and thus the Venetian's failure to provide a notice of eviction makes the eviction illegal.

Peek believes the agreement was an operational agreement and therefore H & H was the only entity that needed to be notified.

Complicating matters are some legal documents that refer to Horowitz's companies, Silver Hammer and Sterling Silver, as sub-tenants.

Thomas F. Smock, vice president and general counsel for the Venetian, was on the stand most of Thursday. He testified about the events leading up to the decision to evict the club.

The Fourth of July weekend was a "risk-management nightmare" with five women being taken out of the club unconscious, a drug bust inside the club and a letter arriving from a law firm informing him of a potential lawsuit over an earlier assault, Smock said.

In all, between May and the end of July, Smock said he learned of nine people losing consciousness within the club and in each case, paramedics suspected Ecstasy or GHB overdoses.

There also were fights and reports of bouncers "shaking down" customers for an extra cover charge, Smock said. In addition, one woman complained she was slipped a drug-laced drink by an unknown man who later touched her inappropriately.

Under cross-examination from Curtas, Smock said the woman was escorted from the club for being in a state of undress.

Smock admitted no investigations were done to verify the people lost consciousness as a result of drug overdoses.

"You just accepted the reports as true?" Curtas asked.

"I accept them as reports based on what an employee heard or saw or was told," Smock replied.

Smock said he had already met with H & H and Horowitz's representatives about the problems when Metro vice and narcotics officers asked to meet with Venetian officials in mid-July.

"Alarms went off in my head," Smock said.

Shortly thereafter, more alarms went off when Metro homicide officers later asked to review any videotapes from the club that might show a woman who died of an Ecstasy overdose. She had been at the club earlier in the evening.

By Aug. 30, the situation with the club was "out of control and beyond repair," Smock testified.

Curtas confirmed Thursday that his client is the brother of Russell Horowitz, co-founder of one of the nation's most successful Internet companies.

That company, Go2Net Inc. of Seattle, is to be acquired for $2.7 billion in stock by InfoSpace Inc. of Bellevue, Wash., in a deal expected to close next month.

Go2Net was formed in 1996 with Russell Horowitz serving as its chairman and chief executive officer. The following year, when the company announced its initial public stock offering, prospectuses were available through Maxwell Capital Inc., then located in Henderson.

According to state records, Maxwell Capital's president was a David M. Horowitz. The corporation status of Maxwell Capital in Nevada has since been withdrawn.

Go2Net, which has 510 employees, operates numerous popular Internet search engines, personal finance and game websites such as MetaCrawler, Silicon Investor and PlaySite.

In March, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen acquired a 30-percent share of Go2Net for $750 million.

Reporter Steve Kanigher contributed to this report.

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