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STEUBENVILLE -- The owner of a controversial after-hours club in downtown Steubenville was dealt another blow Thursday, this one in Municipal Court where he was found guilty of selling alcohol without a license.
Judge John Mascio Jr. fined Club 106 owner Derek Smith $500 plus $99 in costs after a jury found him guilty of one count charging him with being "keeper of a place where beer or intoxicating liquors are sold, furnished or given away" in violation of state law, a non-specified misdemeanor.
Smith was found not guilty on a second count charging him with possession of criminal tools, and Mascio declined to order him to forfeit any personal items seized when police raided the club several months ago.
Smith will, however, have to appear in municipal court Feb. 22 unless he has paid his fines and court costs in full.
A week ago, Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge Joseph Bruzzese issued an injunction suspending operations at Club 106, located at the corner of South Sixth and South streets, until Aug. 19 as punishment for dispensing liquor without a license on at least three occasions in June.
City officials had sought the injunction, calling the club a "public nuisance" due to the frequent fights and gun play in and around it. During court proceedings, prosecutors had shown Bruzzese several videos, including one recorded earlier this year in which patrons are seen battering a man while he was on the floor trying to shield his head with barstools.
Smith had testified his community "needs a place to go" and that his establishment provides that place. He had also told Bruzzese he didn't cause the fights, but he did break them up and that he's helped those in need in his community, but the judge wasn't swayed -- pointing out none of that constitutes a license to sell liquor.
Bruzzese had told Smith that violence that occurs at his club "is attributable more to the defendant's clientele than to the defendant himself, but it attracts attention and keeps (the club) on law e