A Logan Heights hookah lounge that was labeled a \u201cchronic nuisance\u201d due to years of violence, illegal activity and code violations has been shut down, City Attorney Heather Ferbert announced Monday.<\/p>\n
The closure comes after Ferbert\u2019s office sued the operators of Secret Yard hookah lounge in December. According to a stipulated judgment filed earlier this month, the operators are ordered to close the restaurant, pay $1.3 million in penalties and are banned from running another bar that similarly violates the law.<\/p>\n
In the lawsuit, prosecutors alleged that San Diego police responded more than 200 times to calls at the business on Imperial Avenue near 22nd Street between October 2021 and 2024, officials said.<\/p>\n
Ferbert said during a news conference Monday that the hookah lounge had become known for late-night parties that often ended in fights or loud, drunken crowds in the parking lot, causing issues in the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case isn\u2019t just about shutting down an illegal business,\u201d Ferbert said. \u201cIt\u2019s about restoring peace to a community that\u2019s been robbed of it for far too long. No business is above the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The operators of Secret Yard could not be reached for comment. As of Monday, their website and social media had been taken down, and a Google search for the business said they were \u201cpermanently closed.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the lawsuit, the business was licensed in May 2021 as a restaurant and tobacco retailer that would sell some forms of alcohol, except distilled spirits, inside the building until midnight and until 10 p.m. on the patio. It was not licensed to host live music events.<\/p>\n
However, prosecutors said that from nearly the beginning of its operation, the hookah lounge was regularly selling tequila, vodka, whiskey and rum while operating \u201cinto the early morning hours.\u201d It had also hosted DJs and dancing events illegally, and had been the site of multiple crimes.<\/p>\n
For instance, during an incident on Sept. 7, 2022, police received 34 calls for service to investigate the property, 19 of which were noise complaints, the lawsuit alleges. More than 20 calls were made between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.<\/p>\n
In August 2022, the hookah lounge\u2019s patrons were linked to a shooting death after a man\u2019s body was found in a parking lot next to the Secret Yard, officials said. A few months later, a bouncer and his family member were charged with attempted murder after a customer was reportedly shot in the head outside of Secret Yard.<\/p>\n
The operators also received multiple warnings and notices over local and state building and safety code violations, Ferbert said. Investigators said the code breaches involved, among other things, unpermitted construction of a 50-foot structure, unauthorized mechanical and electrical work, blocked doors, illegal occupancy levels and inadequate emergency exits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there was a rule to be broken, this establishment found a way to break it,\u201d San Diego police Chief Scott Wahl said.<\/p>\n
Ferbert said shutting down the business took time because investigators had to work with numerous departments and go through certain investigative steps until her office could file a court action.<\/p>\n
Ferbert said the city still has a pending case against the building\u2019s owner but declined to give further details, citing that it was an ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Logan Heights hookah lounge that was labeled a \u201cchronic nuisance\u201d due to years of violence, illegal activity…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":100727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,64,1582,276,356,5295,1370,728,39254,50,3549,3550,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-100726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-courts","13":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-local-news","16":"tag-logan-heights","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-san-diego","19":"tag-san-diego-county","20":"tag-sandiego","21":"tag-top-stories-sdut","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114933738022897220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}