Chicago Fights E2 Decision

Twenty-one people were crushed to death after rushing from the club in 2003. A security pepper sprayed the crowd in the second-story club, triggering a stampede. People exited down a stairwell to locked doors. The crowd crush injured 50 others.

In 2009, a jury found owners Calvin Hollins and Dwain Kyles guilty of indirect criminal contempt for ignoring a city order to close the club, but the verdicts were reversed on appeal.

The city is asking the state Supreme Court to review the appeal, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

“The court’s decision is in conflict with numerous other cases addressing the standard of review of criminal contempt judgments, and thus injects confusion and uncertainty into a previously settled area of law,” the city law department said in a statement to the paper.

The city is also concerned the decision “creates a serious risk that all building owners will ignore complying with building court orders or interpret the orders as they see fit.”

An attorney for Kyles told the paper that an order should be specific and clear “so the party can follow the order” and will ask the Supreme Court to affirm the appellate court’s decision.