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3 South Beach nightclubs take Miami Beach to court over spring break midnight curfew
MIAMI BEACH — A court battle is underway after three South Beach nightclubs decided to challenge Miami Beach’s newly instated midnight curfew to crack down on spring break.
According to CBS News Miami’s news partners at The Miami Herald, Miami Beach city spokesperson Melissa Berthier confirmed Saturday that a complaint was filed by the M2, Mynt Lounge and Exchange nightclubs.
The Herald reported that a court hearing was ongoing Saturday afternoon at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Downtown Miami, where city manager Alina Hudak was on the witness stand and being questioned by Ben Kuehne, who’s representing the nightclubs.
According to the Herald, Hudak testified that she saw bigger crowds and a more “rowdy atmosphere” among spring breakers on Thursday night, leading her to believe a curfew would be necessary. She also said the effectiveness of the curfew was evident Friday night when crowds began to thin out as midnight drew near.
“Clearly, the crowds chose at some point in the night to go somewhere else,” Hudak said. “It just wasn’t fun.”
The Herald reported that M2, Mynt Lounge and Exchanged filed the complaint around 11:30 p.m. Friday — nearly 30 minutes before the midnight curfew — in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, according to a copy of the document. The judge overseeing the case is David C. Miller.
The curfew “unduly punishes and penalizes the plaintiffs’ lawful business operations and was done without reasonable or appropriate advance warning and in the absence of good cause,” the complaint stated. Also, several big events at the clubs had planned for this weekend will be canceled, the filing noted, adding that the venues had collectively welcomed thousands of patrons so far this month “without causing any harm to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens, residents, and visitors of Miami Beach,” the Herald reported.
The curfew began Friday night and was scheduled to be in effect each night this weekend until Monday morning, and applies to all areas south of 23rd Street and requires businesses to shut their doors after midnight.
The nightclubs’ legal challenge seeks to nullify the curfew for the rest of the weekend. According to the Herald, Hudak declared on Friday a state of emergency that lasts until Monday in order to enact the curfew, and would need approval from the Miami Beach City Commission if it were to be extended.
Romain Zago, the owner of Mynt Lounge, told the Herald on Friday that he didn’t understand why the city imposed a curfew when other measures seemed to be effective in keeping crowds small and calm the prior weekend.
“I don’t understand why this week they would not apply the same system, the same measures,” he told the newspaper. “What happened all of a sudden today that we have to have a curfew?”
According to the Herald, Mynt is open from midnight to 5 a.m., meaning that Miami Beach’s curfew would force the club to be closed the entire weekend. Zago told the Herald that the move would damage his business and his employees.
“My staff all live check by check. They cannot afford a week off,” he said.
The city, Zago added, is “removing food from our plates.”
Large crowds gathered in South Beach for spring break, especially on Ocean Drive, for spring break, the Herald reported. However, the curfew enforcement went smoothly and police almost had the entire strip cleared by 12:15 a.m.
According to the Herald, this is the fourth year in a row that Miami Beach had declared a curfew during spring break; however, unlike past years, the 2024 curfew was imposed despite a relatively quiet March so far thanks to the city’s “break up with spring break” campaign.
The third weekend of March has had a problematic past for Miami Beach, marked by stampedes, shootings and other incidents related to spring break revelers. City officials had warned residents, visitors and businesses since last year that a curfew was likely during spring break this year, the Herald noted.
A Georgia county’s emergency call center was overwhelmed by calls on Sept. 4 about a school shooting at Apalachee High School that killed four people and wounded nine others, records released Friday by Barrow County show.
Local news organizations report many of the 911 phone calls were not released under public record requests because state law exempts from release calls recording the voice of someone younger than 18 years old. That exemption would cover calls from most of the 1,900 students at the school in Winder, northeast of Atlanta.
Calls spiked around 10:20 a.m., when authorities have said that 14-year-old suspect Colt Gray began shooting. Many calls were answered with an automated message saying there was a “high call volume,” WAGA-TV reported.
One man called 911 after receiving text messages from a girlfriend. He was put on hold for just over 10 minutes because of an influx of calls at the time of the shooting, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“She hears people yelling outside, so I don’t know if that’s officers in the building or that’s — I don’t know,” he said, adding that she was eventually evacuated out of the school.
Other adults also called 911 after their children contacted them.
“My daughter calling me crying. Somebody go ‘boom, boom, boom, boom,'” one mother said. The 911 operator responded: “Ma’am we have officers out there, OK?”
Parents of students at an elementary school and middle school neighboring Apalachee also flooded 911 seeking information.
“Sir, my daughter goes to school next door to Apalachee. Is there a school shooter?” one caller asked.
“We do have an active situation (at) Apalachee High School right now,” the operator responded. “We have a lot of calls coming in.”
More than 500 radio messages between emergency personnel were also released Friday.
“Active shooter!” an officer yells in one audio clip while speaking with a dispatcher, CNN reported. Another officer responds, “Correct. We have an active shooter at Apalachee High School.”
The shooting killed teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, as well as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, with seven of those hit by gunfire.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported Thursday that the suspect rode the school bus on the day of the shooting with the assault-style rifle concealed in his backpack.
He then asked a teacher for permission to go to the front office to speak with someone, and when he received it, he was allowed to take his backpack with him, GBI said. He then went to a restroom, where he hid, and then eventually took out the weapon and started shooting, investigators said. A knife was also found on him when he was arrested.
According to investigators, the suspect enrolled at Apalachee High on Aug. 14, and between Aug. 14 and the day of the shooting, he was absent for nine days of school.
The family told CBS News that the suspect’s maternal grandmother had visited the school the day before the massacre to discuss the suspect’s alleged behavioral issues.
The suspect has been charged as an adult with four counts of murder, and District Attorney Brad Smith has said more charges are likely to be filed against him in connection with the wounded. Authorities have also charged his father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, alleging that he gave his son access to the gun when he knew or should have known that the teen was a danger to himself and others.
The 13,000 students at Barrow County’s other schools returned to class Tuesday. The 1,900 students who attend Apalachee are supposed to start returning the week of Sept. 23, officials said Friday.
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