Some of the plaintiffs, which include a number of persons of Middle Eastern descent, say that bouncers purposefully hurt them without provocation.

William King represents one plaintiff who says he was beaten by three security guards after he argued with a coat-check attendant in 1998, according to the Detroit Free Press.

“Nothing he did required any kind of force. It appears that when a bouncer hears someone speak a foreign language, it provokes a different kind of response,” King told the paper.

An attorney for the Royal Oak Music Theatre told Pollstar that the suits are “preposterous.”

“Basically what you have is a gigantic bar, and the problems and incidents that go with the bar business. You have altercations, you have people who are intoxicated who are denied entry, and then complain about it later on,” attorney Mike Novak told Pollstar.

“It’s the equivalent of having about 40 neighborhood bars in one location; it’s a 2,000-seat venue. So statistically, the claims rate isn’t extraordinary, but it’s notable because it’s all in one place,” Novak said.

The attorney noted the presence of a large Arab-American community in the Detroit area and said that about 40 percent of the club’s patrons are of Middle Eastern heritage.

“It stands to reason that if 40 percent of our audience is ethnic, then a good a 40 percent of the people who are going to be involved in altercations – or fights – or ejections are going to be of that heritage. So there’s been a small handful of these plaintiffs who claim they have been mistreated on account of their ethnic background, which is preposterous, because they are our core business,” Novak said.

“There’s a huge sector of our audience that comes from an ethnic background and these are by-and-large customers that we are protecting from assailants. And it’s the assailants who are complaining that, on account of their ethnic background, they were either ejected or denied admission or were assaulted, which is totally absurd. If you know the setting at all, it’s absolutely, patently absurd.”

Novak told the Free Press that while the club has drawn lawsuits thoughout the 1990s from customers claiming to have been stopped at the door on the basis of ethnicity, all were either dropped or settled by the club’s insurer as nuisance suits.

In the last decade, the club has had more than its share of legal problems.

A January 17, 1999 raid resulted in hundreds of people being cited for gambling as well as the seizure of more than $200,000 in cash. Police were tipped that the club had been rented for an invitation-only “investment seminar” which turned out to be a gambling party during the NFL playoffs. The club was forced to observe a four-day ban on liquor sales as a result.

The theatre had tangled with local authorities over venue capacity, and eventually was forced to drop its popular “dance club” format.

The Royal Oak Music Theatre is up for sale, and closed while the owners show it to prospective buyers, manager Chuck Fox told Pollstar.