Limelight (2011) - full transcript

Female reporter: In New York
City Peter Gatien sits at the pinnacle

of a near monopoly on nightlife.

And generally speaking,
if it's a hot club,

it's most likely owned by Peter Gatien.

You see, around here
he is king of the night.

Well, Friday night is a big club
night as you know here in the city.

But the problems with
the drugs and the fighting

have tarnished the club scene.

The Limelight and the tunnel,
cops say they're a drug buyers paradise

where the owner acted
like he could do anything

and get away with it.
He was wrong. He's in jail.



Male reporter: Cops raided the
place and found rampant drug dealing.

Male reporter #2: Peter Gatien
allowed over 50 drug dealers

to distribute cocaine
and hallucinogenics

such as ecstasy,
roofies and special k to young partygoers.

Male reporter #3: Gatien could
receive a maximum of life behind bars

if convicted on all five counts
of racketeering

and drug conspiracy charges.

Male reporter #4: ...And the
possible end of two of New York's

most popular nightclubs.

Man: And he was basically banished

from the United States
and cannot come back.

Peter Gatien: I grew up in a
town called Cornwall, Ontario,

a small industrial town
of 40,000 people.

Brought up catholic, one of five boys.



My father was a postman,
mother a housewife.

Very sort of '50s,
middle-class upbringing.

Male reporter: When he was 15
Peter Gatien lost an eye playing hockey.

Female reporter: He used his
$17,000 settlement from his accident

to open two blue jeans
stores in Ontario.

Male reporter: Three years later
he sold the store for a 300% profit.

Female reporter: With the
profits he bought a dilapidated bar

in cornwall, Ontario,
converting it into a rock club.

Did a three-day renovation and
opened up with a group called rush,

which are really huge now,
a Canadian group.

And that was my start
in the nightclub business.

The first month, like anybody
else owning a place,

I'm the happy owner
having drinks with everybody.

The place is packed.
Things are looking great.

Five, six weeks later my checks
are starting to bounce.

I learned a very early lesson
with my first club:

That you can't be part
of the party, I guess.

Female reporter: After just
a year in the bar business,

he sold his rock club
just as disco hit.

The sales pitch for disco was
just as flashy as the product.

And it's created a new
generation of disco entrepreneurs.

Gatien: I went to the
first disco conference

here in New York City in '76, '77.

I loved America, man.

Canada's a great country
and I really love it,

but opportunity-wise
there's no question

if you are focused and willing

to make the sacrifices
and are a little bit lucky,

opportunities in America
are second to none.

Picked up an issue
of "the New York times,"

which I had never read in my life.

I looked at the business opportunities

and they described
this place in Florida.

It held 2000 people,
$600,000 light system,

half-a-million-dollar sound system.

The ad went on and on and on.

Selling price $400,000.

Guess who's on the next
flight to Miami?

Male reporter:
It will be the Limelight.

- The Limelight.
- The Limelight.

- Limelight.
- Limelight.

The newest nightspot for nightlife.

Gatien: Everything had been,
prior to that, live entertainment.

So the sort of concept was
now you were going to a disco

and you were the star,
you were the entertainment or whatever.

So between the-- sort of a
little bit of play on words,

you know, being in the Limelight

and the Limelight lights
and all that kind of stuff.

So it was just--
it was a good name I thought.

From '76 to like almost '80,

you could do no wrong in that business.

You just couldn't.

Everybody was going out.
It was a real joie de vivre.

I think I was 22 or 23.

I probably had one of the
largest clubs in America.

Female reporter:
Gatien's next stop-- Atlanta.

Gatien: I took over a
bankrupt dinner theater there.

Female reporter: The one in
Atlanta has a glass-top dance floor

that in winter covers a polar bear den

and in summer a shark tank.

Gatien: It developed
a reputation as being

and quoted often as being
the hottest club in the south.

Woman: Why didn't you stay?

Gatien: It's been probably
said about every industry:

Unless you make it in New York
you really never made it at all.

So that's why I got out of Atlanta.

I felt at the time-- you know,
I'd been to New York--

that my clubs at least physically

were every bit as well-
thought-out, put together

as any New York club
including studio 54.

I felt I'd paid enough dues that
I could compete in New York.

Steve Lewis:
Unbelievably exciting time.

There were very few rules in
terms of buildings, smoking.

At that point clubland really
did seem like a dream land

because it wasn't part
of the real world.

It was really an insular society.

It was a secret still. Nobody
knew it except the right people,

except the really cool,
smart, creative people.

I worked at the club called danceteria,

the original danceteria on 21st street

between 5th and 6th avenues.

I mean, I didn't hang out at studio 54

which I always considered
to be like 2000 guys

with their shirts opened
down to their dicks

asking what sign you were

and 200 unbelievable Elizabeth
Taylors or Truman capotes.

Mercado: We were the alternative,
danceteria, to studio 54.

We did rock and roll.
Madonna was there,

Run D.M.C., Russell Simmons.

Even the Beastie Boys
got their start there.

Lewis: I would go to Max's Kansas City

which was Lou Reed, Debbie Harry

and Johnny Thunders and the ramones.

Mercado: At this point
it was the art stars.

It was francesco clemente

and Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Gatien: People were
totally uninhibited.

And I'll tell you, really uninhibited.

Lewis: My first rule was
never go home with a girl

whose hair could hurt you.

This was the way you lived.
It was that kind of mentality.

I think the drug of choice
then was cocaine.

That was pretty fashionable.

But it was so clandestine.

You went in a bathroom stall

to do a bump of cocaine
and you didn't tell anybody.

This was pre-aids, pre-herpes,

pre really anybody having
buddies that were junkies

or coke addicts or freebasing
or any of that kind of stuff.

So I think nobody really saw
the downside of living on the edge.

Everyone was having a good time.

You need to be original.
You need to be innovative.

You need to be the best
in your industry.

You know, you just can't be
as good as the next guy.

I sort of felt like for the '80s,

because the chrome and neon
thing had been brought

to as far as it could go,
that art and architecture was the way to go.

So my instructions to
a real estate person were

I want a historical building if
possible. I want a church if possible.

I want a strong architectural
building with high ceilings.

But if you can get me a church
that would be perfect.

It's not like you can
walk up to a pastor

and say, "father, how much
would you like for your church?

I think it would be
a terrific nightspot."

Male reporter: This is the episcopal
church of the holy communion

in New York, built in 1846.

Male reporter #2: It served briefly
as a drug rehabilitation center

for down-and-out heroin addicts.

After that it stood empty
until Peter Gatien came along.

Gatien: The fact that it was in
the heart of New York was terrific.

It was on an Avenue.
Anything that's on an Avenue

has to have 100,000 people drive by

or walk by on any given day.

I fell in love with it
and started negotiating.

Male reporter: Peter
bought the old church building

for 1.7 million American dollars.

It's been declared a historic site

and the exterior of
the building cannot be altered.

Gatien: It had high ceilings,
50-foot ceilings,

great arches, incredible woodwork.

Male reporter: The church's
dedication plaques remain in place,

a reminder that the Limelight disco

was once a house of prayer.

Gatien: There was a main room

which also I put two tiers
of balconies in it.

V.i.p. Rooms upstairs had their
own little sound systems.

Male reporter:
Centuries-old pews make way

for the latest sound systems,
lights and video screens.

Gatien: The square footage,
the dimension,

the scale of those rooms
were just great.

Male reporter: Gatien spent close
to $5 million on the renovation.

Gatien: And we opened
up in November of '83.

Some people actually opening
night came with a huge crucifix

with a guy laying on it
and, you know, partying

all in drag and that kind of stuff.

Female reporter: Critics were outraged

by what they saw as a desecration.

It drew fire from religious groups

and media attention because it
became the in place for celebrities.

Male reporter:
Where Yoko Ono and Andy warhol

hosted parties during its first week.

♪ This disco used to be
a cute cathedral ♪

♪ where we only play the stuff
you want to hear... ♪

Male reporter: There's a trick
to making a disco a success:

Keep the beautiful people coming back

so that ordinary folk can
rub shoulders with them.

Male reporter #2: It costs
$15 to get into this disco.

Drinks cost another
$5 each, even a coke.

Male reporter: As for dress,
the flashier the better.

Male reporter #2: The theme
night is just one of a number

of marketing strategies Peter adopted

on his way up the disco ladder.

Male reporter: On this particular night,
a tribute to federico fellini.

But modern addictions sometimes destroy

the atmosphere of ancient Rome.

We need cigarettes.

We must have cigarettes.

I don't want a total punk crowd.

I don't want a total yuppie crowd.

I don't want a total gay crowd.

I want 20% of everybody.

Male reporter: For this crowd,
being wild and having fun in a church

is part of what keeps them coming back.

When I did it in cornwall I
felt I was the best at what I do.

When I did it in Florida
and when I did it in Atlanta

and now that I'm here,
they're the same ideals.

I want to make sure
I'm the best at what I do.

Male reporter: Right now the
small-town boy from cornwall, Ontario,

is the hottest thing in New York City.

New York and Limelight

from '83 to '85 were great.

What happened in '85 is aids came on.

Lewis: Aids actually squashed

club life as we know it.

People were not sure--
and I'm talking everybody--

weren't sure whether
you contracted aids

from as simple as drinking
a dirty glass in a bar

or kissing somebody.
Nobody really knew.

Female reporter: Limelight
slumped in the mid-'80s

and soon Gatien was opening
branches in Chicago and London.

Later he sold his other
Limelights for millions in profit,

but the beat still goes on
at the original.

Gatien: Come the '90s,

New York was starting
to be back on the rebound.

People were finally starting to
understand they're not gonna contract aids

from drinking a dirty glass
or being kissed on the cheek.

It was almost like they
were freed in the '90s.

Where, you know, "god,
now we can go out and go nuts again."

Mercado: Limelight was
very important to Peter

because it was his--
let's call it his cash cow.

It was a club
that had already been there.

And it wasn't going anywhere.

Lewis: It was a tourist attraction.

The idea of seeing a club
built in a church

was its whole shtick.

I don't believe it had a moment of cool

until I came on board working--

or until Michael Alig came
on board working there.

Alig: My scene was
traveling from club to club.

As a new club would open my
scene would travel to that club.

For some reason each club went bankrupt

after a little while.

I was thinking,
where am I gonna go now?

The only club left that we
hadn't bankrupted was Limelight.

Gatien: Michael Alig would
have come to me to pitch a night.

Alig: And he made
it very clear. He said,

"I've basically seen you
bankrupt every club owner

in Manhattan and I'm not
gonna let you do that to me."

Figured, you know,
maybe it was something that would fill a hole

for three or six months until
you develop something better.

Mercado: And these little
parties just kept on getting bigger

and bigger and bigger.

♪ Disco 2000. ♪

Alig: The theory
is that you fill a club

with great-looking people,
beautiful women,

gay people, fashion people,

a little bit of drag queens and color,

and that in and of itself
will make the club hot

and get a lot of publicity,
the right kind of publicity.

And then the paying people
will start to come.

Gatien: And that's how
it grew from 700-800

to a consistent 2200-2500
people on a Wednesday night.

Apparently there is a crowd of people

who are attracted to topless,
green transsexuals and six-foot chickens.

This is a new kind of entertainment.

Let me show it to you. Watch this.

It's 4:00 A.M. do you
know where your kids are?

Well, they could be right
here at the Limelight,

one of New York's premier nightspots.

Lewis: Michael's vision
was that he was not alone,

that there were thousands
of disenfranchised kids

all over the country.
And with media, mtv

and Geraldo and all
these kinds of shows,

he could reach these kids
and say, "come to New York."

Male reporter: They're called club kids

and they party all night
and sleep all day.

Lewis: And it was a movement.

It was very much Andy warhol's factory.

It was very much a society being built.

Alig: We were really obnoxious.

I mean we were really obnoxious.

We threw drinks,

we danced on tables and toppled things.

Gatien: Basically lived
to get dressed at night.

Would literally spend hours

on their costume, on their makeup,

assembling it all day long type thing.

And loved to look fabulous.

Every aspect
of the Limelight was d.I.Y.

The kids made their own clothes,
they made their own records,

they had their own celebrities,

they had their own photographers,

they had their own videographers.

Gatien: I remember
Jean Paul gaultier coming in

to get inspiration from
these kids clothingwise.

And a year and a half later

every person in long island
is wearing platform shoes.

Owen: Lord Michael was this kind of

wannabe gangster from staten island.

I started going to nightclubs
at probably 16 years old.

Went over to London for a stretch.

Male reporter: Every weekend
millions of young britons are drawn

by the lure of dance music
into a magic haven--

clubland.

Caruso: The music scene was there.

It was completely different
than New York City.

I mean, New York City
had that decadent nightlife.

Male reporter: The late '80s rave
scene was certainly enterprising.

But it was also idealistic,
anti-establishment

and not profit motivated.

Parties were held in
warehouses and fields.

Caruso: It was irrelevant
whether you were good looking

or dressed a certain fashion.

It was more or less
just enjoy the music.

Peter Jennings: Rave was driven by
a new kind of electronic dance music

moving at 140 beats per minute.

This wasn't just a couple
of kids that got together.

This was a global youth
culture movement.

Man: There was like
25,000 at this party.

I've never seen-- it was
just a sea of people.

Peter Jennings: It was a
sea of people on ecstasy.

Well, guess what?
We've got another drug.

It is synthetic

and it makes you love everybody.

Chemists call it M.D.M.A. For short.

Users have a word for it-- ecstasy.

Male reporter: At a psychotherapy
session in suburban Boston

Bob and Marie littlehale
were given a dose of m.D.M.A.,

a drug unregulated,
untested and unapproved,

to help them explore feelings.

M.d.m.a. is fast spreading
beyond psychiatric offices

where federal agents say the
potential for abuse is enormous.

We have enough cocaine and
heroin and marijuana out there

and L.S.D. And P.C.P.
And abuse of legitimate drugs.

We don't need this to mushroom
and become another problem.

You're a nice man.
I like you. I love you.

Male reporter: Accepted or not,

Bob and Marie feel
the drug was useful to them.

You know I love you too.

Male reporter: At the very
least deserves further research.

- Bob: You're beautiful.
- Thanks.

This morning the drug
enforcement administration

is announcing its intention

to place the drug known as m.D.M.A.,

or by the street name ecstasy,

under emergency controls in schedule 1.

Becoming a schedule 1
controlled substance

basically means that there was no

legitimate use for ecstasy.

Male reporter: Possession of ecstasy
now carries the same penalties as heroin:

Maximum of 15 years
imprisonment for illicit traffic

or clandestine manufacture

or possession with intent
to distribute.

Peter Jennings: In 1989 ecstasy
had become wildly popular in britain.

It had all but disappeared
in the United States.

I did my first hit of ecstasy
in a club in London.

Female reporter:
Ecstasy is a feel-good drug

that stimulates the nervous system.

Caruso: When you're in the music scene,

you just forgot about everything else

and the music just sounded incredible

and you had this endless energy.

Male reporter: In low doses
it's a stimulant.

High doses can produce
hallucinogenic effects

similar to l.S.D.

Alig: All of a sudden I felt like

all of my friends
are so fucking beautiful.

You heard sound better.

People talking to me,
their voice sounded like

it was coming through a tube.

Like it was hitting
my eardrum directly.

Like I could hear the tinkle
of the glasses

and like all of these little
sounds, I could hear them

so precisely.

The lighting just was 10 times
that more exciting.

Jennings: You can dance all night

and your sensory perceptions
are tuned way up.

It is marketed as a way to enhance

the techno music experience
at raves and clubs.

Techno hadn't even been a whisper

in New York in the early '90s.

It hasn't happened in New York yet.

So somebody buy cases
of records, bring the music in.

The dude who gave me the first pill

said, "listen, take these
pills along with you.

And I guarantee you
this drug right here,

pure m.D.M.A., is better than any drug

they've ever did in their life."

I come back to New York with the pills,

with the records,
brought them to a dj by the name of repete.

I said, "Pete, you've got
to play this music.

Forget about that mushy house stuff.

This is that aggressive party music.

This is the stuff that's
gonna take you there."

So now it clicks.
All right, I got the drug,

I got the music,
I don't have the venue.

American rave started
in the outer boroughs

of the city, Brooklyn
and staten island mostly.

And two of the people
who were throwing these raves

were lord Michael and dj repete.

At one point they had a party

in a sleazy little after-hours club
in the west village called Japan.

I said if these people
can pack this much punch

into this tiny little
sleazy after-hours club,

imagine what they could
do to Limelight.

And the very next afternoon
I brought lord Michael to Peter

and Steven Lewis sat in on the meeting.

Caruso: And Steve was like,
"we have a room called the chapel.

You do your party there."

So when you start getting
experimental music,

and techno was experimental
at that point,

you start it on an off night

in a small room and see
how people react to it.

I started seeing the same
energy on the dance floor

in the '90s I had seen in
the '70s and early '80s.

Owen: These kids were on
the dance floor going crazy.

All their inhibitions were gone.

Gatien: And then
literally within five weeks

it was, "we've got to do this on
the main floor one night a week."

Caruso: And from there we moved
it to Friday nights on the main floor.

Basically this is how
future shock came into play.

Yeah yeah.

Tonight we welcome you to
lord Michael's future shock.

Lord Michael in the house.

And our very own house dj repete.

Lewis: And we were selling out.

Caruso: Friday nights Marc berkley

took the back end of the club
with muscle boys.

In future shock
there were 3000-4000 people.

And this was the only place in New York

where you could hear techno
at the time.

Gatien: When Michael worked
for US that year and a half

he was definitely working hard
and actually bringing good acts in.

In fact he even brought Moby.

Moby: I DJ'd for Lord
Michael a bunch of times.

He really was instrumental
in developing

sort of like the electronic
techno rave scene in New York

in the late '80s, early '90s.

Man: Lord Michael the promoter,
he gets the job done!

Yo, bass, take it away, boy.

( Techno music playing )

Caruso: It's "Caligula" with music.

Gatien: It was virtually
sodom and gomorrah.

Lewis: It was pagan Rome
on acid is what we used to say.

Caruso: Orgies going
on in the upper chapel.

And you had people streaking
naked and you had girls on swings.

We had this game show called
"what's my line?"

Where there were several lines

of white powdery substance on a podium.

And the contestants had
to come up on the stage

and snort one of the lines and they
had five seconds to guess what that was.

It was either cocaine
or it was special k

or it was crushed up rohypnol
or it was ecstasy.

Then in round two they would go
again and we would whittle it down

until there was one person
barely standing left.

With the ecstasy craze
being so powerful,

what could I do to drive more people

to want to get in the club
earlier in the evening?

He would have ecstasy punch.

Take 200 pills,
mash them up into a powder,

put them in a 55-gallon garbage pail

and serve it from
the dj booth on the main floor.

It was almost like a priest at church

or Jesus coming down
and the gathering happened.

You know, people came
with their mouth open.

Throw the pills in their mouth.

Punch is being served. It was frantic.

You just felt like it was degeneracy

without negative consequences.

Caruso: The initial demo
was bridge and tunnel.

Alig: Lord Michael's
crowd were so unfabulous

that they were not used to
getting into a Manhattan nightclub.

So they turned out in massive
numbers. Thousands of people.

It was like a cross between
a soccer riot and a rave.

A bunch of Italian kids from
staten island and Brooklyn.

In britain we used
to call these kids love thugs,

which were basically soccer hooligans

who had taken ecstasy.
This wondrous therapy.

And instead of beating each other up,
were hugging each other on the dance floor.

Moby: And so in one night in the chapel

you'd have all the goth kids.

In the room adjacent to the chapel

you'd have like glamorous
transvestites.

And then in the main room

you'd have all these kids
from staten island, long island

with their shirts off
going crazy to techno.

Alig: At one point we
had to have four doors

because many people were saying,

"I won't go in the same door
as those people."

Moby: But then they'd start
drinking and they'd start intermingling

where I'm sure people found themselves

making out with people
they would never have imagined.

Like at the beginning of the night
they'd go there with their friends

and they probably left
a changed person.

They were taking a lot of ecstasy
and ecstasy is the love drug.

And it's very difficult to argue

or to have that kind of
attitude with somebody

when you're all on ecstasy.

And it kind of brings
everybody together

and you're all on the same level.

So those things combined made
everybody get along really well.

Female reporter: Ecstasy,
all the rage at so called rave parties,

is flooding into the country.

Caruso: I had a source in London,

a woman about 65 years old
that wore sundresses.

And she'd just tape
the ecstasy to their body.

Male reporter: Couriers
can smuggle between 2-5kg

of tablets into the united
states on their person.

Female reporter:
It costs pennies to produce

and can be sold
for as much as $45 a dose.

I was receiving them
at about $5-$8 per,

depending on the quantity I purchased.

In the early stages
it was, "give me 10,000."

Within months it was, "I need 30,000."

Ecstasy went from being
this kind of marginal drug,

that not that many did it,

to becoming what kind of marijuana was

to kids in the '60s.
Everybody wanted to do ecstasy.

There's always a policy:
You get caught you're tossed.

I was throwing out coke dealers,
heroin dealers, pot smokers.

If a cop came in and busted
you for ecstasy,

they didn't arrest you.
They took the ecstasy

and they threw it in the garbage
because ecstasy was not illegal.

Gatien: In New York state

it was not illegal until '96.

It would have been
considered more risky

or Maverick to have a cigarette

in a non-smoking section
of a restaurant.

Because ecstasy wasn't really
regarded as a hard drug.

The N.Y.P.D. Were much more
interested in cocaine and heroin.

So the marching orders back then were:

"Don't have any violence in your club,

don't be having an ambulance
coming around or any of that stuff,

keep the streets and sidewalk
and whatever clear."

Nobody would ever have
accepted people openly

doing lines of coke
and that sort of stuff.

"And other than that,
we don't bother you."

Voters in many of America's big cities

go to the polls this Tuesday
to pick new mayors.

Now opinion polls tell US many voters

still have a single issue in mind.

In election year '93, crime is king.

Let me tell you that I know

about the crime
that you have to deal with.

I understand the fear that you have.

Male reporter: There is a crime of
violence committed in New York City

every four minutes.

Male reporter #2: Rapes,
armed hold-ups, murder.

Male reporter #3: Prostitution
and pornography are just as much

a part of the times square scene today

as the old electric news headlines.

Gatien: When I started
visiting New York from Atlanta,

I'd always remember going
down f.D.R. Drive and it'd be like

17 burned-out cars and, you know,
graffiti all over the place.

And as coming from a pristine
town like Atlanta,

which was basically a pre-boom city,

it was a little frightening.

This city in the late '70s
and through the '80s

and even into the early '90s

became the most violent
crime-ridden city in the country.

The murder rate in New York
had hit an astronomical high.

They had over 2000 homicides one year.

I heard five shots there.
Bang bang bang bang.

When I looked there I just
couldn't believe my eyes

seeing the blood on the street.

The violence that was taking place

on the streets of New York City

was directly related
to the drug trafficking.

Male reporter: For a long time
part of the city's lower east side

had been described as an open
air supermarket for drugs.

Silbering: It seemed that New York,
we were traditionalists.

It would be heroin,
it would be cocaine.

And that really was the way it went

until we had this offshoot
in the mid '80s of crack.

A cheap form of cocaine
with a short intense high.

The drug is highly addictive
and has spread so rapidly

it's regarded as a deadly
menace in many communities.

Male reporter:
Amidst the glamour of Broadway,

crack dealers and users
have set up shop.

It is a drug that is tearing
the city apart.

It was a rough time.
It was a rough time.

Male reporter: Rudolph Giuliani
gained his fame as a prosecutor.

As the former U.S. attorney
for New York,

he led the investigation into
insider trading on wall street.

His tough law and order
temperament has been criticized.

I said, "Rudy, this is a problem for me

that you arrested two stockbrokers

in their offices

and you took 'em out in handcuffs.

There was no reason for it. You did it

basically to embarrass them."

Female reporter: And in
the New York mayor's race,

the first republican
elected since 1965,

republican Rudy Giuliani
talking tough on law and order.

When Giuliani became mayor
he decided to make a change.

There's no question that
Giuliani did a very good job

with respect to reducing crime.

Crime was really out of control.

He brought in bill Bratton
to be the police commissioner.

Bratton adhered to what you'd
call the broken windows theory.

Even the smallest crime
would be handled very seriously.

Little things become big things.

Female reporter: Police are
cracking down on what they call

quality-of-life crimes
like traffic violations,

subway fare beating
and public drunkenness.

Male reporter: Things
like street drug deals...

Female reporter: ...And
prostitutes openly at work.

Owen: We're not just gonna
go after murderers and robbers.

We're gonna go after graffiti artists.

We're gonna go after squeegee men.

We are a very assertive police force.

We want to show people
improvement in the quality of their life.

Giuliani did something that
nobody had done before.

Male reporter: Where crime figures were
once updated only every three months...

Female reporter: ...Computers
now track every crime committed

in the city every day, allowing cops

to react instantly
to changing crime patterns.

Safir: We did it through a program

called compstat--
for computerized statistics.

What we did was we mapped crime

in every borough, every precinct,

every block,
every building in the city.

Which would really hold
the precinct commanders

accountable for crimes that
were committed in their precinct.

Male reporter: They look for problems

and they'd better find the answers

because once a week
the big brass downtown

chops off the heads of those who don't.

Different precincts
compete with one another

in reducing crime.

Female reporter: Many
residents who once felt trapped

behind closed doors now feel
a new sense of Liberty.

But others say police initiatives

sometimes leads to a use
of excessive force.

Silbering: What we're having here

is the beginnings of a police state.

Male reporter: This,
say New York civil rights leaders,

is the experience
of most black men here--

being stopped and frisked.

Koch: Crime actually fell radically.

Male reporter:
Overall crime is down 50%.

The murder rate is down to
what it was in the early '70s.

Female reporter: There
were fewer than 1000 murders

for the first time in almost 30 years.

Giuliani: The first six months
of last year crime went down

by 1% in the rest of the country.

It went down by 16% in New York City.

Male reporter: Making New
York City a surprising model

for fighting crime in other big cities.

I contributed to Giuliani's campaign

on the second go around.

At that point I was at four clubs,

a staff of 1000 people.

We were a small industry in New York.

Female reporter:
In New York City, Peter Gatien

sits at the pinnacle of a near
monopoly on nightlife.

It's midnight and the palladium,

one of the busiest nightclubs in New York,
is hopping.

Two years ago when the
palladium was near bankruptcy,

Gatien assumed the lease
and turned it around.

♪ U.S.A. ♪

♪ U.S.A. ♪

Hello, and welcome to U.S.A.,

your pleasure destination.

Female reporter: The $8
million four-story funhouse

is Peter Gatien's crown Jewel.

Male reporter: ...Where an adult-sized
slide connects the top and bottom floors.

Female reporter: Upstairs,
a room created by fashion designer

Thierry mugler doubles
as the v.I.P. Lounge.

Its centerpiece--
a stairway that leads nowhere.

Man: It was the premier club

in all of New York City nightlife.

Female reporter: Soon Gatien will have
to divide his attention among four clubs.

The tunnel is another defunct
club he plans to revive

with a subway theme.

I'd never been in the tunnel
in my life.

It's this huge warehouse.

And it is dark.

Since it's a tunnel,
literally a tunnel,

it has this mystique.
It's like being in a subway.

It always feels like
an underground party.

( Techno music playing )

The tunnel is 50,000 square feet.

Silbering: I couldn't see
two feet in front of me.

Lewis: It has so many rooms
and so many nooks and crannies.

Silbering: They have blowjobs
going on. There's sex here.

And I walk in there with Peter.

And Peter says, "I'll be back
in a minute." He had to run off.

He leaves me in the middle
of the tunnel.

If he didn't come back--
and it was about five minutes,

I was getting worried that
he wasn't going to come back--

I think to this day I'd still be
looking to find my way out.

What's up,
y'all? This is cherub and I am at the tunnel

sunday night like we do every sunday.

Only today is the nas
record release party.

I got 50 cent here, my personal friend,

my favorite rapper in the world.

Hey, what up?

Gatien: We're doing the sunday
night that "source" magazine

quoted as being probably one
of the most influential nights

for hip hop that there ever was.

Funkmaster flex, he was
the one that organized it.

We used to get everybody
from Jay-Z to puffy.

You name it, they'd perform
there for free.

Drop that shit for me straight up.

- Help me out.
- Jig, jig, jig, jig--

- jigga...
- Crowd: What?

- What?
- Jigga...

- Crowd: Who?
- ( Beatboxing )

- Crowd: Jigga what?
- ( Beatboxing )

Crowd: Jigga who?

Gatien: Hip hop is the dominant

music in society.

It's like rock and roll now is like

a way way way distant second.

Yeah. What's up?

Gettin' real sticky icky,
icky, icky, icky.

Ooh-whee!

Owen: You can go and you can bump into

some important hip-hop producer.

So it was a place where deals were done,
where new music was heard.

It was an important part
of the culture in New York.

Put your motherfucking
hands up one time.

Put your motherfucking hands up.

( Rapping )

Lewis: It was a gold mine,
sunday nights.

Gatien: It was a night-- and
I've done a lot of nights in my life

where I can actually say not
70% of the crowd was dancing

and not 80% of the crowd was dancing--

100% of the crowd was dancing.

Even big security girls would
be doing pirouettes and whatever.

It was a great night.

♪ Me and my operation,
running New York night scene ♪

♪ with one eye closed
like Peter Gatien ♪

♪ none of our foes have an idea ♪

♪ back in the days
to fool the feds... ♪

Lewis: 4000 people into the tunnel,

5000-6000 people into the palladium,

4000 people into Limelight,

and let's say 2500 into U.S.A. 3000.

Male reporter: 15,000 people a night

dance to the tune Peter Gatien
plays in Manhattan clubs.

Owen: He was pulling in
50,000 customers on a weekend.

Female reporter: Gatien predicts
with all four clubs open for business

revenues will reach
the $30-million-a-year Mark.

Gatien: Figure an average
of about 150,000 a week

times four.

Male reporter: As midnight approaches

in the city's hottest hot spots,

as the bass from the speakers

rattles your bones
and pounds your ears,

a single cool watchful eye
looks over it all.

It is the eye of Peter Gatien,
the lord of late night.

Moby: Peter Gatien was an impresario.

There was a magical quality
associated to everything he did.

Because everything he did was huge.

Everything he did seemed
completely unsustainable.

He had balls,
you know? It ain't easy opening a nightclub.

Going for four, that's a cowboy.

He went for the four biggest
places on the block,

hired everybody that was cool,

and he tried to run an empire.

Female reporter: The music is
going to be loud and the dancing hot.

In a special report
meet the mystery man

who rules New York's nightclub scene.

Alig: Club owners of the good clubs--

Steve Rubell at studio 54,
Eric goode at area--

these were genuine party people
who loved being there.

They loved the attention,
they loved the fabulousness.

They hosted their own clubs.
They gave away drinks.

They were part of the
festivities. That wasn't Peter.

Owen: His profile was
lower than a limbo dancer's.

Mercado: He was just this shadowy
figure who would occasionally show up.

And the moment he showed up everyone
would get anxious 'cause he was the boss.

Alig: I told him. I said,
"people think you are in your office

counting shekels and laughing at people

and profiting from everybody
else's fabulousity

and they resent you for it.
You have to go out

and make it look like
you're having a good time."

And I would have to literally drag him

onto the dance floor
and prop him up somewhere.

Male reporter: To Gatien,
the party life is his business,

a business which involves
16-hour days, six days a week.

There has to be at least
so many departments

and then subdepartments
within those departments.

You would have general managers
of each of the clubs,

bartenders, busboys, security.

Then you would have the
accounting staff,

the art staff, the people
that designed the invites.

Then you would have promoters.

You're talking four clubs here,
you're talking about a total of 20 nights.

So you're talking a total
of 55 groups of promoters

'cause it takes more than one
promoter to do any given night.

A place like palladium or
Limelight you got different rooms.

Sometimes you would have
different parties in different rooms.

So you could have three
invites per club per night.

That all has to be designed,
put together, disseminated.

When we had Limelight we had
rock and roll church sundays,

which was a legendary night.

Lewis: You'd hang out with
axl Rose and Jon bon jovi

and all that kind of people
there constantly.

Tuesday night at that time

was run by a guy named Neville Wells.

He did a night called communion,

which was an alternative
music type night.

Gatien: We had smashing pumpkins.

And then Wednesday was
Michael Alig's disco 2000.

Thursday was more of like a
model's night. Friday was techno.

Saturday night junior vasquez,
palladium, he plays long sets.

That night could end as early as 7:00

and sometimes 11:00 the next day.

When I had four places,
I'd do my rounds.

Palladium was usually
the last place that I left.

You really have to be a
legitimate, hard-working person

to survive the nightclub business.

It's not a picnic.

It's not a party.
It's a very serious business.

Male reporter: In Manhattan
where million-dollar clubs

are hot for a month or two
and then often fold,

Gatien has known more
than a decade of huge success.

Did we own the city's
nightlife? We owned it.

We were the leaders in nightlife.

Not just in New York City,
but in the world.

- ( Cheering, shouting )
- ( Techno music playing )

Are you ready, baby?

Gilbride: There were a
number of overdoses in the city.

We tracked hospital overdose reports.

Where some of these clubs were

we saw increases in overdoses.

Gilbride: Ecstasy was
considered by an age group

of say 18-to 25-year-olds

as a safer type of drug to use.

It wasn't as bad as say
cocaine or heroin,

which was a fallacy.

Woman: Patients who have used ecstasy

can come in presenting with
many different complaints.

They can range from patients
who are unconscious,

who are in a coma,
whose temperatures are very high

and are severely dehydrated.

Gilbride: You have kidney failure.

You have cardiovascular failure,

which had resulted in death.

Man: 'Cause over time drugs like speed

and ecstasy can change their brain.

Male reporter: U.S. officials are
concerned that ecstasy is often mixed

with other more dangerous drugs.

Linda lacewell: Pills that
are made out of speed,

pills laced with heroin, with p.C.P.,

with really anything imaginable.

Gatien: A guy named Nicholas marinelli

supposedly bought drugs at Limelight,

went back home and died the next night.

His parents were connected
to New Jersey governor Tom kean.

Kean, I believe,
called Giuliani directly.

John dabrowski: And lodged
a complaint against Peter

claiming that their son died
from an overdose of ecstasy.

Giuliani called the dogs in.

When you let a 17-year-old
with Times Square I.D.

Into a club they're bound to get drink.

They're bound to possibly get drugs

if drugs are present in the club.

And I think that's what happened.

As it turns out,
if you look at the autopsy,

it says the kid committed suicide.

His cause of death was
hanging by asphyxiation,

that's what the death certificate said.

But I think the parents
believed that somehow

Peter Gatien was to blame
for their kid's death.

And because they knew a lot of people,
they decided to do something about it.

It was a radical change in philosophy

when Giuliani came in.
I mean the idea before

was that nightclubs weren't
even worth bothering with.

We're got real criminals to go after.

10 years before, city hall
couldn't have cared less

about kids taking drugs in nightclubs.

The crack epidemic pretty much ended.

Crime went way down,
but you still had all these policemen.

And then suddenly they had
some time on their hands,

so I think that's when
the crackdown started.

The hammer was--
yeah, it really came down.

There were various nightclubs
that were very well known

for selling ecstasy
and other drugs of abuse.

Silbering: Limelight was
a club that kept coming up.

- Moby: Everybody was high.
- An open-air drug market, the nightclubs--

people were just going in there
like they were at a fair.

What happened at the Limelight
was nothing new.

You can see that with any
drug-based subculture.

It's the same thing that happened in
haight-ashbury with the hippies in 1967.

It all starts out with good vibes
and everybody loving each other.

So you have the summer of love.

But then that's followed
by the winter of hate.

People started smoking
marijuana and doing acid.

And then they started
doing meth and heroin,

and that really changed
the whole tone of the culture.

And a very similar thing
happened at the Limelight.

If they'd stuck to ecstasy
that would have been one thing.

But what happened was
the quality of ecstasy

it declined rapidly,
so people started looking for new highs.

And they came across this
thing called special k,

ketamine, which is
an animal tranquilizer.

Now special k has exactly
the opposite effect to ecstasy.

When there was just ecstasy,
it's a very social drug.

Special k, on the other hand,

is a very antisocial drug.

So on special k and rohypnol

you started noticing
what we called k-heads.

They were zombies, basically.

1989, 1990, a night at the Limelight

would be people throwing their
hands in the air having a great time.

Fast-forward a couple of years

and it's kids
from the suburbs on special k

just sitting on the dance floor
staring at their feet.

Owen: We're not just
talking about ecstasy and k.

I mean there was everything
in that club.

It was a pills- and-powder circus.

You can't hide cocaine easy.
'Cause you're seeing people.

And you're seeing
it's a much different deal.

But a pill is real easy.

Is someone taking a pill?
Is it an aspirin?

Is it a tic tac? A life saver?

What are they putting in their mouth?

Bob: And ecstasy back then
wasn't even on the D.E.A. Radar.

This is something totally new
and something totally different.

We actually had to educate ourselves

and educate our managers
and supervisors.

D.e.a. Started to get involved

in ecstasy investigations

around 1996.

Benjamin brafman: Ecstasy was
new. Ecstasy was not understood.

Ecstasy was not even a crime
under New York state law.

So you had this confluence of new drug,

new investigative techniques,

and you had new sources
that were coming in.

And the D.E.A.,
to its credit and in fairness,

was trying to learn as they went along.

This is your boy Sean Bradley.

Owen: This kid Sean Bradley,

very minor drug dealer at the tunnel.

I threw him out of the club.
We searched him.

He didn't have any weapons
on him, but he did have drugs.

And we 86'd him. And I guess
that started the whole thing.

Because I guess two months later...

Sean Bradley got arrested in New Jersey

for counterfeit money
by the secret service.

Gatien: Sean Bradley,
who apparently went to clubs including mine,

said, "I understand
the New York nightclub scene.

I'll introduce you to it."

Told them he knew how drugs were
being distributed in New York City.

Secret service contacted D.E.A.

Owen: And then the two D.E.A. Agents

gagne and germanowski
come over and meet Bradley.

They tell Sean Bradley
there's these seizure laws.

When all the clubs are seized

by the government
and they're all sold off,

Bradley's gonna be making $250,000.

And meanwhile they were paying him,
I think it was $1000 a week cash.

Now this is a kid who couldn't
hold down a day job.

He's a penny ante drug dealer.
This was a big payday for him.

Dabrowski: And now he became
an informant for the D.E.A.

Bradley's role is to get gagne

and germanowski into the inner sanctum.

Bradley takes them to pat
field's in the west village,

you know, this very trendy
club kid fashion store,

and dresses these thick-necked,
muscular D.E.A. Agents up as club kids.

Germanowski was the one
in the long black dress

with a slit up the side.

Gagne, who is less fashion forward,

he went for this kind of suburban
punk look with a dog collar.

The worst drag queens I'd ever seen.

And he gets them into the v.I.P. Rooms.

They get to see all the drug
action going on.

Okay, this is Sean Bradley. Stay tuned.

Female reporter: The Limelight is a
former church turned into a nightspot.

The tunnel is a former
warehouse for subway cars.

But the feds say both nightclubs

are really drug supermarkets

where the owner acted like he
could do anything and get away with it.

He was wrong. He's in jail.

A very important cell

of a very significant
distribution organization

has been immobilized.

Male reporter: People come to the
Limelight to be seen, to have a good time

and prosecutors allege they also
come here to buy the drug ecstasy.

Male reporter #2:
Known variously as toucans,

fruit loops and playboys,

these are some of the ecstasy
tablets now serving as evidence

in the case against 24 people
including the owner

of the tunnel and Limelight nightclubs.

All have been charged with
conspiracy to sell ecstasy,

which could mean a maximum
of 20 years in prison,

a $1 million fine and the possible end

of two of New York's
most popular nightclubs.

Investigators say the club's
drug selling

was an incredible commercial enterprise

with international connections

and a monopoly well organized enough

to keep outside dealers
from getting in on the action.

These clubs existed to
distribute these substances.

Male reporter #2: Gatien's attorney said,
"in 20 years of operating clubs

Gatien had never condoned
drug use of any kind,

nor had he ever been cited
for drug use violations."

I think this was
an ill-advised indictment.

I think Mr. Gatien was deemed
to be a trophy, if you will,

by the drug enforcement people

who had access to those clubs.

And I think when we get
into a courtroom

we're gonna find that they
made a terrible mistake here.

Male reporter #2:
Tonight, Gatien is in jail.

Gatien: I ended up that day finally

at a federal lockup in Brooklyn.

The next morning
the lights go on at 6:00

and within 10 minutes
I'm being approached

for any drug that I wanted--
heroin, coke.

I'm supposed to be able to prevent it,

but meanwhile in a place
where you're strip-searched

nine times before you
even get up to your bed,

it's okay for them to have it.

Male reporter: He is currently
out on bail of $1 million

and is expected to go
on trial next year.

It's important to note here
that despite the accusations,

the clubs continue to operate and
will right up until the trial for Mr. Gatien,

which isn't expected to begin
until the middle of 1997.

I assume that combination
of the district attorney,

the federal prosecutor,
the corporation counsel

and the police department--
they are exhausting

all of the penalties
that they can legally exact

from that operation. You want my view,

that operation has proven
that they can operate legally

and they can operate
within reasonable bounds.

Safir: One of the
unique things in this city

is there's basically a civil
nuisance abatement law

which says that if there
were three occurrences

within a year in a particular
business that are crimes,

you can apply to the court
to shut them for a year.

And we did that in a number of venues.

Under the nuisance abatement laws

I had to perform
three undercover purchases

in an open and notorious environment.

After receiving coaching from
Bob gagne and Matt germanowski,

I was under the understanding
that I needed to make

a certain amount of buys
and busts at the Limelight.

Then we were to move on to the tunnel.

Male reporter: The party's over.

Police clear the dance floor
at two top hot spots.

Male reporter #2: Big blow to
nightlife here in Manhattan tonight

as police close down two major
dance clubs on the Eve of the weekend.

Female reporter:
The Limelight and the tunnel,

cops say they're
a drug buyer's paradise.

Male reporter #3: Many wonder
however if this is about drugs

or more about getting
controversial club owner Peter Gatien.

Male reporter #4: New York
City police moved in at midnight

on the trendy Limelight
and tunnel clubs

executing a court order to eject the
patrons and close the nightspots down.

Male reporter #5: Clubs were closed
under new York's nuisance abatement law

which permits the shuttering
of establishments

where narcotics are sold.

Man: They blew it
all out of proportion.

I mean it's nothing you couldn't
find on any corner in New York City.

I mean they've blown this whole thing out
of proportion. I really think it's unfair.

Male reporter: Last night's closures
were not part of the federal indictments,

but related to cocaine busts
made earlier in the day

by New York City police.

Safir: It was like a
scene from a movie set,

this dark place full of dirty couches

and a lot of stoned people.

There were three arrests
made this afternoon

of an employee of the Limelight

and two associates

based on evidence gathered
at the Limelight.

Yes, there were four undercover buys

made at the tunnel over a year period.

And we get anywheres from 5000
to 10,000 people over a weekend.

That's like over 100,000 people,

and yet there were only four
undercover drug buys.

I think that's a pretty good standard.

And this is a signal that
we're not gonna tolerate

the use of businesses as drug-
selling locations in the city.

Give me a break.

Like this was gonna
change the whole city.

Male reporter: Under the
city's nuisance abatement law,

both the Limelight and the tunnel here

can be closed for up to a year.

But according to
Peter Gatien's attorney,

he will move in court next week
to have both clubs reopened.

That closure
is a result of Sean kirkham

totally orchestrating, manipulating it

to a point where we couldn't
have prevented those sales.

Other than not opening
our doors that night--

would have been the only way
we could have prevented that.

Kirkham: I'd been an informant

for almost six years
at that point in my life.

I've worked with countless agencies.

I've worked with hundreds of agents.

Without question it's
physically impossible to prevent

people like me from closing
down your place of business.

All it takes is a simple phone
call to a drug dealer

to come to your place of occupation.

I'd have to make a drug purchase.

And under the nuisance abatement laws

your business will be closed.

Gatien: I never recovered
from that summer of--

I'll call it the summer
of Sean kirkham.

You know, if you go look back
to the times of the 1940s

when the Nazis were on trial

at nuremberg and they said
they were doing a job,

it's much how I felt.
I was just doing a job.

I was getting paid for it.

I didn't think of
the consequences in terms

of being labeled a
confidential informant or a rat.

So it was, for me,

there was no pride in doing a job.

It was just a job and I tried
to do the best that I could.

This club has been shut down
before and it quickly reopened.

And according to police quickly
became a drug supermarket again.

We'll see what happens this time.

Gatien: I had to make
a deal with the city

where I agreed to close
Limelight for a year.

Tunnel I think, if I remember right,
was closed three and a half months.

A little later I had to sell palladium.

I got a half million dollars.
I needed the cash

for the defense.

Kirkham: The prosecutors
had hoped that the money

generated from the nightclubs
would dry up

and Mr. Gatien would
no longer be able to afford

to pay his legal defense.

I believe wholeheartedly
that their main objective

was that if we financially break him

he's gonna plead.

And I went down to
the U.S. attorney's office

and said, "this is like crazy.

If we wanted to resolve the case,

what would be the sentencing guidelines

that you would think was appropriate?"

And they looked at me
and they said, "11 years."

They assessed Peter Gatien
criminal responsibility

for every pill
that was sold in his club

by anyone that they seized in
the course of the investigation.

They multiplied out the math
and it came to 11 years.

I looked at them like they were nuts.

To suggest that Peter Gatien,
who was running four venues

at the same time,
could be criminally responsible

for what went on at any given
moment in any one of the venues

whether he was there or not was something
I thought I could win in a courtroom.

If you go to any rock concert,
for example,

at either the meadowlands
or at Madison square garden,

you're gonna have hundreds
if not thousands of people there

using drugs and you
don't see the management

or the ownership of the meadowlands

or Madison square garden indicted.

Regardless how prominent
the individual is,

I never saw that type of
scorched-earth mentality.

The motto was: Get Gatien at all costs.

This was a resume case, quite frankly.

A resume case to a prosecutor
is it's gonna be covered

by all of the tabloids,
all of the media.

If you win you're a star.

A lot of those prosecutors
want to become Giuliani someday.

How do you do it?
By taking down big scalps.

How do you do it?
By getting your name in print.

Mercado: The headline
of getting Peter Gatien

was really a primary reason
why he got indicted.

Who is the biggest owner of nightclubs

in New York City? Who's the big fish?

What better way a person to choose

to make an example of
than the one who's on the top?

Brafman: There was no face to
ecstasy when they indicted Peter.

And when you got
an eyepatch and a face,

it makes you an even more
attractive person to target.

Alig: Every single club was
saturated with special k and rohypnol,

crystal meth, ecstasy and cocaine.

But they didn't have
an evil sinister eyepatched

figurehead like Peter Gatien
at the helm.

Owen: Regular folk had no
idea who owned nightclubs

like sound factory or twilo.

A lot of people knew
who Peter Gatien was.

And so he became this easy target,

all the ills of nightlife
projected onto him.

And by bringing him down
it could serve as a lesson

to other club owners to behave.

Female reporter: Now the
indictment against him has expanded

to include throwing marathon parties,

binging on drugs for days.

In a five-year period
I had four parties

which I did drugs in a hotel.

Alig: Peter was the best kind
of drug user that there can be.

He would go three months,
four months without using any drugs.

And when I say any drugs he
wouldn't have a glass of champagne.

He would go on a binge
for three or four days.

Get girls there, do a lot
of cocaine, drink, party.

The government argued without
any basis in fact whatsoever

to do so that the parties
at the hotel were rewards

for people who worked for Peter
and therefore was related

to the racketeering enterprise.

This was simply fundamentally false.

Gatien: It dirtied me.
You get a middle-class

or, you know,
suburban jury or whatever.

The guy's at a hotel with girls

and they're partying and doing drugs.

God, what an awful person he is.
Let's put him away.

Brafman: There was a young prosecutor,
very little experience.

Her name was Michele Adelman.

I mean she was obsessed with Peter.

She had a big picture of Peter
behind her desk in her office.

I remember going in there one day and I said,
"this is not healthy.

Get a life. This is just a case."

So at that point it's just
the two women, Michele Adelman

and Lisa fleishman.

Ben speculated that maybe they
wanted a more experienced guy.

They brought out the senior
person in the eastern district.

Owen: So they
brought in Eric friedberg.

Brafman: He was chief of the
narcotics bureau at the time.

Owen: He had a reputation as
a straight shooter, tough but fair.

Brafman: Very competent,
very experienced,

very seasoned person.

And he was spearheading the case.

Owen: You got to understand,
this was a very high profile case.

A lot of people's reputations
are on the line here, all right?

They spent millions of dollars,
tens of thousands of man-hours

and they were determined to bring
down Peter Gatien no matter what.

I was of the illusion

that federal enforcement,

whether it's prosecutors or D.E.A.,

were honorable

and didn't bend rules.

The people going after
him had no morals.

They're as bad as anybody else.

Brafman: The three superstar witnesses

that were gonna be the
centerpiece of the government's case

were Sean Bradley who started
this investigation,

Michael Alig and Sean kirkham.

And before the trial started
all three had imploded.

Their key informant, Sean Bradley,

got arrested for selling
drugs at a Jersey mall.

The same place where he got busted a
year previously with the counterfeit money.

He now is upset with the government

because he had to spend
five days in jail.

He makes all these serious allegations

about the conduct of gagne and germanowski,
the two D.E.A. Agents.

Dabrowski: Sean Bradley
writes a letter to a judge

implicating that the D.E.A. Agents

were not following proper procedures.

They bought him gifts,
they skimmed money off him,

they let him use and sell drugs,

and they also participated
in the use and sale

of drugs at the clubs.

Owen: He claimed
that they were surveying

Peter Gatien's office in a warehouse
across the street, the office at the tunnel.

They saw Peter Gatien
scratching his nose in his office,

gagne joked, "oh it looks
like Peter's doing coke."

And that incident ended up
in the D.E.A. Report

as Peter Gatien using a one-hitter.

Dabrowski: He said that Peter
did coke and he had it in his drawer.

And we actually went,
looked at the desk,

found out there's no drawers.

That was another one of the allegations

that Sean Bradley said that
didn't happen. They made it up.

I never-- and I use the word never--

did any illegal drugs-- even pot or ecstasy,
anything like that--

in my life at any of my venues.

Dabrowski: Government lost Sean Bradley

so now they reach out to Michael Alig.

Michael agreed because they told him

they had enough information
to arrest him.

Lewis: He was completely
fucked up at this point in his life.

Drug-crazed insane.

Owen: Who knew more about
the drug dealing at the Limelight

than Michael Alig?
Little problem though.

Little problem. Michael had
dismembered his roommate

and dumped him in the Hudson river.

A fellow by the name
of angel melendez disappeared.

Angel melendez lived with Michael Alig.

Gatien: The whole of New York City,

at least the whole of people
that went out

and sort of knew what was
going on in New York City,

had heard the rumor of Michael
Alig murdering this person.

Owen: I had maybe six,
seven people close to Michael

all saying that Michael had
confessed to doing this thing.

Lewis: He approached
me at the Limelight.

He danced up to me wearing,
you know, a full clown costume,

you know, makeup, colored hair,
the whole nine yards.

And he asked me to borrow my car.

And I said, "what do you need it for?"

And he said, "I just killed angel

and I want to get rid of the body."

And I said, "excuse me?" And he said,

"I just killed angel.
He's in my bathtub.

I'm gonna chop him up
and get rid of the body."

I said, "Michael,
get the fuck away from me."

Matt and Bob knew about the murder the way
that Peter knew about the drugs in the club.

I mean-- and when I say that
I mean they didn't--

they sort of figured maybe it happened,
maybe it didn't.

And if it did, we don't want to know.

Owen: As far as they were concerned,
if Michael Alig

could give them Peter Gatien's
scalp, why should they care?

And at that point,
as far as they were concerned,

there was no absolute proof
because there was no body.

But once it starts hitting "details"

and "the New York post"
and stuff like that,

they started floating ideas
about the state case

and wrapping it up with a federal
thing and charging me with one thing

and making me go to jail
for something like three years.

Owen: The body had no hands or legs

so they couldn't do fingerprints,
but they did dental records.

Dabrowski: They positively
identified that was angel melendez.

Now they had a body. They go
out and they arrest Michael Alig

for the murder of angel melendez.

Owen: After he's arrested
and he's in rikers island,

the D.E.A. Pay him two more
visits-- gagne and germanowski.

I was deathly sick. I was
withdrawing from heroin, throwing up.

They asked the superintendent if
they could take me out for a drive.

I told them, you know, I'm very sick.

I cannot focus on any
of these questions

that you want to ask me
about Peter Gatien right now.

And so they let me call

Brian my drug dealer
from their car phone.

And I called him and I said,
"can you please meet me?"

He said yes.
And they got out of the car

and let Brian come in the car
and they walked up the block.

Me and Brian were doing dope
in their back seat.

And every time I was sick they came

and picked me up and took me to Brian.

Dabrowski: So now Michael Alig

flips on the D.E.A.

Alig: I fucked over somebody
who was very close to me,

like who was really
more of a father figure

than my own father. And I just--

I didn't think I would be able
to live with myself.

His usefulness
as an informant was done.

Out of the blue we get a call and
this guy on the end of the phone

says, "I'm Sean kirkham."
I had heard that name.

I knew he was one of the sort
of witness-informant types

who were floating around
in this cesspool of a case.

And it was like,
"oh my god. What do I do with this guy?"

In early 1996 I relocated
back to New York City

where I was living with
these two male escorts.

They had placed ads in the
back of a gay magazine called "hx."

When these roommates
were unable to fill slots

I would step in to make
a few extra bucks.

And now he wants to tell US a story

about how he got involved
with the Peter Gatien case.

The big thing, Sean said,
was that he had this affair

with Eric friedberg,
the lead prosecutor in the case.

He saw a picture in the paper.

Oh, I recognize this guy.

Kirkham: Imagine to my
surprise I had seen in the press

Eric friedberg a U.S. attorney.

It sounds nuts
that a federal prosecutor

would be with the likes
of Sean kirkham.

I had decided to contact him

because now I had a contact
within the U.S. attorney's office.

Kirkham actually
volunteered his services.

At first he was a little shocked

that I had called him
during the daytime.

And I told him that I had
worked once at club U.S.A.

For Peter Gatien.
He called me two days later

and said that he had
set up an appointment

with Bob gagne and Matt germanowski,

the D.E.A. Agents involved
in the Peter Gatien case.

Sean kirkham made,
you know, a crazy allegation

about a personal relationship
with the prosecutor.

I personally
never believed it to be true.

I had an obligation to vet it
to see what happened.

We were a little skeptical about him.

So he gave US information

down in Miami that we can
go and check out.

I went to Miami, Florida.

I spoke to an F.B.I.

Who said he was his
handler at the time.

He told me Sean was
a very reliable informant,

except that sometimes
he exaggerated a little bit.

Pretty much 90% of what he says
is right on the money.

It's the other 10%
you have to worry about.

As far as the credibility of him

doing anything with the prosecutor,

we could not substantiate
any such thing.

So maybe the allegation

fell under the 10%
you got to worry about, right?

Maybe that was the case. I could
never confirm it one way or the other.

A lot of the times I could confirm
what Sean said, not this time.

But what he did was he put
the fear of god into friedberg

because it would have been
the end of his career if it was true.

And even if it wasn't true,
the sheer allegation

would have been very
problematic on the Eve of the trial.

And we took that evidence,
went to the U.S. attorney's office and said,

"look, I don't know what's
going on with your witnesses,

but one of them is out there
peddling information.

We may be aggressive criminal lawyers,
but we're honest people."

Kirkham: I was arrested,
detained, charged

and I pled guilty to one count
of obstruction of justice--

lying to a federal agent.

Probably the most aggravating
is a guy like Sean kirkham

is a terrific person
when his services are required

to put somebody in jail.

He's believable.
They'll put him under oath.

They'll put somebody in jail
for 20 years. Dah dah dah.

The minute he crosses their line, okay,

they become an ultimate scumbag.

Owen: The case was in serious trouble.

You had three cooperating witnesses

who all turned on the government

and were all separately
and without collusion

making serious accusations
of government misconduct.

We're basically people who have
never been in trouble before.

This was our first brush with the law.

And it was very frightening to
have our first brush with the law

be these big D.E.A. Agents that are
making this big federal case against Peter.

So as the case progressed and they
saw what they were gonna have to do,

that they were gonna have to lie and do all
this stuff, people just started dropping off.

We don't want to have anything
to do with that, you know?

And also Peter's a decent person.

People didn't want
to do that to Peter Gatien.

You know? They liked him. I liked him.

Now they have a gentleman
by the name of Michael Caruso.

Gatien: Caruso at that point
had been long gone from Limelight.

That whole crew bolted
to Florida in '92, '93.

All the little guys
had gotten arrested already.

That only leaves US. Then
a "village voice" story comes.

And it discloses our drug operation,

our complete enterprise.

Owen: And so, you know, like any article,
I had to give him a right to reply.

I invited Caruso up to the office,
to "the village voice."

There's this story coming out on
Wednesday and it basically says

you were the Limelight's drug
kingpin. I need your reaction.

And he's like, "oh yeah,
it's bullshit." This and this and that.

I said, "well, Michael,
I have this person saying this

and that person..."
We went through the whole thing.

Then he starts, "I've known
you for years, frank.

Why are you doing this to me?
You know I've just had a baby."

I said, "that's got nothing to do
with it." I said, "this is what I got."

And he starts shaking like this. I think,
"uh-oh.

He's gonna come across the
room and try and strangle me."

Then all of a sudden
he just bursts into tears

and starts blubbering
like a spanked toddler.

( Sobbing )

He gets up and he goes,

"what do you think I should do?
Do you have any advice?"

And I just said, "yeah, Michael,
I think you should get a really good lawyer."

And sure enough we get picked up.

Dabrowski: They go and
arrest Michael Caruso now,

the fourth informant in the case.

What do you want to do? I want
to take the deal against Peter.

Male reporter: Caruso pleaded
guilty to felony drug charges

in a cooperation agreement
with the feds.

Caruso: Tell the background
story of the nightlife.

Tell US about your drug dealing.

Tell US about the crimes
you've committed.

Admit to everything you've ever done.

Owen: Michael Caruso wanted
to be the al Capone of raves.

And for a while he was.

Caruso: At that time
we had the best music,

we had the best venues,
we had the best drugs,

we had the biggest crowds,
we hired all the best door people.

It was a world within a world.

Male reporter: He is just
one of a number of witnesses

the feds claim will show
how the Canadian-born Gatien

employed a network of people to
make millions of dollars in profits.

Owen: It really was this rogues'
gallery of staten island scumbags

that they thought they could
use to put away Peter Gatien.

And now they became
the informants against Peter.

They became the government's case.

Male reporter:
Gatien could receive a maximum

of life behind bars
if convicted on all five counts

of racketeering
and drug conspiracy charges.

Peter Gatien is used to being
the center of attention

at his clubs the Limelight
and the tunnel.

Today the venue is a courtroom
at his trial.

Brafman: You get accused of a
crime that you really didn't commit

and you face the prospect
of maybe 10-20 years in prison.

I cannot think of anything
more frightening.

It's like being in a bad dream

and you're walking through
sort of like a zombie.

But you know you can't be a zombie.

You have to be engaged.
You have to be focused.

And you have to deal with
your reality at that point.

Brafman: And then when
you're being put out of business

so you really can't defend yourself

and your adversary is
the United States government

with unlimited resources and
badges and guns and handcuffs,

it's very intimidating.

The feds rarely rarely ever
lose a drug case like this.

While you have the presumption
of innocence,

most people on a jury
look at you and they say,

"I don't think the government picked
you out of the yellow pages to get indicted."

So you stand with a great deal
of prejudice in a courtroom.

Were we confident?
We were hopeful, okay?

I mean you didn't want
to even entertain

the possibility that you would not win.

You don't even let your mind go there.

It's not like, "let me start
planning prison life.

Let me start planning how I'm
gonna take care of my family."

You don't even entertain
those kind of thoughts.

To start to deal with that
reality would be too depressing.

Male reporter: Today Peter
Gatien's in federal court here.

He's charged with racketeering
and conspiracy to distribute drugs.

A prosecutor told the jury
that Peter Gatien allowed

over 50 drugs dealers
to distribute cocaine

and hallucinogenics such as
ecstasy, roofies and special k

to young partygoers
invited to Gatien's clubs.

Male reporter #2: Nightclubs that
the feds describe as nothing more

than massive drug supermarkets
to their young patrons.

Male reporter: The prosecution
also detailed how security guards

tipped off so-called house
dealers about undercover cops

and threw out the competitive
drug dealers

who didn't have Gatien's
nod of approval.

Gatien: I had a staff of 1000 people.

Over a five-year period
probably turned it over three times.

They couldn't produce
five security people--

with the might of the united
states that could put pressure

on somebody saying, "did you get
instructions from anybody in Gatien's camp

to allow this one or that one
to operate in there?"

They couldn't 'cause they didn't exist.

Owen: And I remember
the opening day of the trial

Michele Adelman,
she got up and she said

upfront right at the beginning
of her opening statements

that they had no evidence
that Peter Gatien

personally profited from
the drug sales at the Limelight.

So what the hell were we doing there?

Some of the government
witnesses will include

several of Gatien's
former pals and employees.

The trial's expected
to last about a month.

Male reporter: Their star
witness Michael Caruso,

a.k.a. Lord Michael, took the stand.

Caruso, a Limelight club employee

who prosecutors say was
Gatien's right-hand man

testified against his former boss.

Owen: They are so
desperate to build this case

that they base the whole
case on the testimony

of the most unreliable scumbag

in a case filled
with unreliable scumbags.

I mean that really is a measure
of their desperation

that they would even think of
putting somebody

like lord Michael on the witness stand.

Brafman: We really used
Michael Caruso on cross

to establish what I thought was
the fundamental legitimacy

of Peter Gatien's operation,

to establish the vastness
of Peter's operation.

And the numbers were extraordinary.

We were trying to show even if you had

some drug dealing going on at the club,

with the millions of people
who came through that club,

with the millions of dollars
that Peter was making,

this was an insignificant
part of the operation.

And nobody, from Caruso on down,

ever claimed they gave
Peter Gatien a nickel

as a result of any money
that they made selling drugs.

Peter never ever ever asked for

any financial kickback from drugs.

Never once suggested he would
give me money to finance my enterprise.

Peter wasn't getting
any kickbacks from drug dealers.

Peter was making money hand over fist.

I mean, hundreds of thousands
of dollars a week.

For, you know, what,
a few extra thousand dollars,

to risk all of that? No.

Peter was a businessman,

but he wasn't abnormally
greedy like that.

Would I be that dumb enough to expose

a fairly high net worth,

which I thought I had back then,

and everything that I'd worked for

since I'm 16 years old

to get a cut on this
$20 pill that's being put out?

I mean it's beyond absurd.

I'm sitting there saying
I did 200 years worth of crimes

and so are my codefendants.

Here's a civilian
who's never got arrested.

It's his word against ours.

How could we ever
be credible on the stand

for the jurors to believe
what we're saying?

Michael Caruso came with, you know,

a substantial amount of baggage.

Owen: Brafman went through
all the crimes that Caruso

was forced to admit as part
of his cooperation agreement.

There were home invasions, kidnappings.

When I say kidnap,
no children involved of course.

We're just talking about
common day kidnapping,

extortion attempts.

I mean I ripped off my resource.

I just took the drugs, said,
"get back on your flight and leave."

Then I ripped off the person
who was gonna buy them.

And Damon burett was a young boy

living with lord Michael.

He came to Limelight
for a job but he was too young.

They wouldn't hire him so he
made him like his houseboy.

He was my...

Housekeeper at one point
slash promoter.

Dabrowski: One time
lord Michael comes home

and Damon has suffered
a bullet wound to the head.

He committed suicide

in my apartment.

The cops come around, right?

Caruso is holding this gun in his hand.

Manages to bullshit the cops
that it was a suicide attempt.

I didn't buy that story
and neither did anybody else.

Everybody thought he got murdered.

Everybody believed that
lord Michael had Damon whacked

because Damon was coming up
short in drug deals.

Plus Damon was being
investigated by the police.

I took the tox report and I went
to a medical examiner

and a pathologist.

He had so much drugs in him,
so much valium,

that he couldn't pull a trigger.

Plus the bullet went into the head

and it went in at
a downward trajectory.

Most people who shoot
themselves, the gun is up

and the bullet comes up
through the head. Wasn't the case.

Owen: The suicide note
described a way of killing himself

which wasn't the way he killed himself.

He said he didn't want to shoot himself

so instead he was gonna take lemons,
which is quaaludes.

Well, there was no
quaaludes in his body

and he did shoot himself.

The kid had problems.
He tried to commit suicide

a week prior to that with pills.

Other people say that, you know,

Caruso being such a conniving scumbag

basically used that as cover

to set up this fake suicide attempt.

Brafman: And all I did was
begin going through that evidence

and confronting Caruso with one
piece of evidence after the other.

Brafman suggested that
there was foul play,

but absolutely not.

And at one point
in the middle of the cross,

Caruso just broke down
hysterically crying,

"I didn't kill him. You have to believe me,
I didn't kill him."

Owen: Caruso, big old tough guy,
suddenly burst into tears.

Right? Blub blub blub blub blub.

He imploded at that point
where I think everybody in the jury

sort of decided to move a little bit
further back from the witness stand

because he went from being
maybe maybe maybe maybe,

you know, a drug dealer liar,

to maybe maybe maybe
being a cold-blooded murderer.

And that has a way
of turning off jurors.

The most significant thing about that
trial is not who took the witness stand,

it's who didn't take the witness stand.

I remember at one point
late in the trial

saying to friedberg,

"when are you gonna put
germanowski and gagne on?

What do they offer? They
were in a club for two years,

they saw six drug sales."

The amount of dirt we had
on those guys at that point,

they probably would have needed
an attorney of their own

by the time Ben was finished with them.

Owen: Gagne and germanowski,
they were there every day in that trial.

Did they take the witness stand? No.

Ben brafman said it
to me more than once,

in his 35 years as a defense lawyer

has never seen the case agents
not testify.

Brafman: And we had about 26 witnesses

who we were gonna use
in our defense case.

But I kept watching that jury
react to key government witnesses

and I was seeing people like
rolling their eyeballs

when these people were testifying.

And I was getting the impression

that a couple of those people
just didn't believe them.

It was like the ecstasy bandits.
It could have been a movie.

But it had nothing to do
with Peter Gatien.

I said, "if we put on a defense
case, we will lose this jury."

Owen: Brafman was so confident

that he had basically
destroyed the prosecution,

he didn't call
a single defense witness.

And I remember going home
and laying in bed

wide awake knowing that I was
about to make a decision

that would impact forever
on the quality of life

that Peter Gatien and his
family might get to enjoy.

And that if I was right
I was gonna be a hero

and it would be great.

And if I was wrong
I was gonna be second-guessed

by every lawyer who Peter went
to for the rest of his life

who would look to say the guy blew it.

You had 26 witnesses,
what would be the downside?

So we rested.

This case, either we win or we lose

on the issue of the credibility

of the principal government witnesses.

I remember looking at this jury

who are all middle-aged
people, normal people.

I said, "let me ask you
an honest question.

If you were going on vacation
would you give one of these guys

the key to your apartment
and let them water your plants?

You wouldn't. Not only did they
have a career of criminal conduct,

but they came into this
courtroom and they lied to you.

So why should you trust them
in deciding someone else's life?"

And I said to the jury that my
biggest concern in this case

was what a lifeguard on a beach faces

on a particularly rough day.

You could be the best trained lifeguard

and someone could be in the water a
couple of hundred feet off of the shore

and you should be able
to run out and save them

with little effort 'cause you know
how to swim. And then the current hits.

And I don't care how good you are,
you can't save them.

They drown.
That's my fear in this case.

But drugs has been the current that's
been running through this courtroom.

Peter is the guy who you
should hold responsible

for drugs in New York.
That's the current.

And if you allow Peter
to be swept out and drown

in that current,
then you haven't done your job.

'Cause you swore that you would
decide this case on the facts

or the lack of facts,
not on whether there were drugs in New York.

The question is did he knowingly commit
the crimes charged in this indictment?

And if you find that there's
a reasonable doubt as to that,

then you have to find him not guilty.

It's just an awful feeling. You totally

have no control over
the situation either.

It's like your whole life is in
the hands of these 12 people

and you've got lying, cheating,

get-Gatien-at-all-cost,
no-integrity-whatsoever people

wanting to destroy you
and your family's life.

And now you've got two years of work

compressed into 90 seconds.

When we stood up to accept the verdict

he grabbed my hand

and he was shaking more than I was.

Any guilty here was bad
for the home team.

So until the whole verdict
sheet was finished,

you know, and we had a clean sweep

of all not guilties, it wasn't over.

Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty.

And Peter's side would sigh, "yay."

And the other side just went, "ah."

But when the last not guilty was read,

I mean, Peter let out a whoop.

I'm elated. I feel like the weight
of the world is off my shoulders.

It's been a really difficult
time for my family and myself.

You don't know what winning
the big one is

when you're looking at
17 years in jail.

I thought I was gonna have
a stroke to be honest with you.

Happiness, the gratification,

all these emotions, the fear--

it all sort of hits you at one time.

Brafman: What was really
amazing is all of the club kids

started to dance and scream and yell.

And they were jumping on the benches.

And the judge tried to gain
control of the courtroom.

You know, "I want
the courtroom cleared."

And then I think he finally,
you know, gave up

and walked off the bench recognizing
that there's no way to contain this moment.

Male reporter:
The government lost big today.

After two years it all came apart.

After a month-long trial,
jurors deliberated

for five hours over two days.

Much of the testimony they considered

came from drug dealers that
struck a deal with the prosecution.

In the end it could have been
the credibility of those witnesses

that cost the government
this very important case.

I think it really speaks
sadly of our justice system.

Really, if you don't have funding,
you don't have a prayer.

I mean the government
doesn't run out of money

and it doesn't run out of time.

And if they want you,
and this prosecution wanted me,

they do whatever they
have to do to get you.

Zachary Carter: This particular trial,
not the entire prosecution

or investigation, but this particular
trial was about whether or not

Peter Gatien was responsible and
the jury has spoken on that issue.

They could not conclude beyond a reasonable
doubt that he was personally responsible.

The jury definitely saw that
this was an abuse of power.

Unfortunately it turned
my life upside down

and my family's life upside down
and it's never been the same since.

Manhattan club owner
Peter Gatien was acquitted

of charges that he turned
his New York nightclubs

into drug supermarkets
to increase business.

Gatien claimed that if there was
any drug dealing in his club

it must have happened on his left side.

Male reporter: Gatien,
just glad he's not the guilty one,

walked out of court tonight
ready to explode yet again

into New York nightlife after
a long and troubling ordeal.

We got outside the courtroom.
I said, "okay, Peter.

What are we gonna do?"
He said, "I'm going to church."

I said, "what do you mean go to
church?" He said, "let's go to the Limelight.

Male reporter: New York
is in for one grand party.

That's the word of Peter
Gatien's attorney tonight.

And the Limelight will reopen
he says in four weeks

as one of New York's
biggest nightclub owners

celebrates his newfound freedom.

Male reporter: And one of the
biggest names in the nightclub business

was charged with tax evasion--
Peter Gatien.

Well, it was the end of the
United States vs. Peter Gatien

in the federal court. We then had

the people of the state
of New York in the tax case.

Female reporter: It's the latest
chapter in an ongoing battle

between Gatien and the city.

This evasion charge is a classic case

of skimming from those cash receipts

in a concerted effort executed
over a five-year period

to enrich these defendants

at the expense of not only
the taxing authorities,

but the taxpayers
of the city and state.

Male reporter: Federal prosecutors
claim he and his wife Alessandra

owe nearly $1.5 million in back taxes.

If they're convicted they'll go
to jail for up to 25 years.

Gatien: It went back
five and a half years.

I did $100 million plus in
business over that five-year period.

So we paid less than 1% of our staff

in cash, and I was guilty.

Peter had screwed up in terms of taxes.

And we intended to work
it out, and we did.

Gatien: Here's the
deal that he negotiated:

Got to return the million one,

got to pay a half million dollar fine;

we will give you what's called
a certificate of relief

that will allow you to retain
your liquor license;

you'll go to jail for 60 days

and probation for five years.

So I did my 60 days.

And I was delusional enough to think,
"okay, they got their pound of flesh.

Let me, you know, get back
in and start life over

and, you know, make a go of it."

Female reporter: Club king
Peter Gatien is calling on

former city drug czar Robert silbering.

Gatien says the former
city drug prosecutor

can help him keep his clubs drug-free.

And I hired him probably about '99

to monitor the clubs at that point.

I sit down with Peter
and I said, "look, Peter,

there's gonna be a lot of changes.

Otherwise I'm out the door."

Dabrowski: First of all,
we fired all security.

Got rid of all the managers.
Got rid of everybody.

Silbering: We're gonna scan their ids

to make sure that they're
appropriate age.

Dabrowski: We started to put
wristbands on people who aren't 21.

Silbering: We're gonna
have to put signs up

which says no one will be
admitted using drugs.

Dabrowski: And we
started to search people.

Security: You all will
be getting into tunnel.

Just back up, please.

You got to take your shoes off

as you come in through
the metal detectors.

Any drugs found on you

and you will be asked to exit
the building immediately.

Guys on the left, girls on the right.

Before tunnel even opened
the task force was down there.

They had the roads blocked off.

100-200 policemen outside.

You couldn't even get on the block

without having your I.D. Scanned.

It really did feel like you were trying
to have a night out in a police state.

We did everything we possibly could

to have people take their shoes off,
their socks off, open their mouths.

The body searches at the front
door were practically indecent now.

When you start searching people
and make them feel like

they're entering a federal prison,

it's not the atmosphere they
want to pay to come into.

I would not compromise on the searches.

I said, "Peter,
we're searching people."

Dabrowski: Tunnel on sunday
night was quite open wild.

Patrons were 90% black.

They weren't a drug-using crowd
but they were a drinking crowd.

Silbering: The precincts
hated hip-hop nights.

Hated them. Oh, they got nervous.

What are we doing with all these
African-Americans in a white area?

Mercado: But of course
it was black people

coming through a Chelsea neighborhood

that saw itself being hoity-toity.

And a lot of these people
took the subways

so they were walking from 23rd and 8th

or 26th and 8th
through the neighborhood.

Silbering: And the party would
end and arguments would ensue.

So now you have a fight.
So there you'd have assaults.

You'd have broke-in cars.

You'd have-- once in a while
you'd have a mugging.

Female reporter: Just last
week a 16-year-old boy was killed

after a fight at the tunnel
ended on the street.

A couple months ago I called 9-1-1

because there was a girl
drunk carrying a gun.

People didn't want hip hop
in Manhattan clubs

because of its reputation for violence.

Anyway, I was getting
a lot of heat for that.

And it was strictly a race issue.

The precinct didn't want black folks

coming down to that area of town.

Peter was in a difficult spot.

He needed money. He was desperate.

He owed so many people money.

He owed me money.
He owed brafman money.

Gatien: And then I was paying
down the 1.6 million back taxes,

both federal and state.

Peter, I think, looked at it,
"this is my moneymaker.

This is what's gonna keep me going.

I can't close on sunday."

Had you been inhibited or prevented

from playing hip hop in 1999,

there was not much music left
if you were going to be current.

Dabrowski: I met with the
commanding officer of the 10th precinct,

which the tunnel was in.
And he says to me,

"I'm gonna have to explain this
now when I go to compstat.

My statistics are gonna be higher,
there's gonna be more crimes, this and that.

If he doesn't open sunday or he
does a different type of event,

he's not gonna have
any problems with me."

So I went to Peter
and I said, "look, Peter.

I'm gonna be very straight with you.

If you run hip-hop nights
and incidents continue

to happen on the street,
they're gonna close you down."

And they did.

Male reporter: The only people in line

at the tunnel nightclub
tonight will be cops.

Hours before the big
Friday night kicked in,

dozens of officers moved in
to close it down and lock it up.

A move which some say
could finally lock the owner,

Peter Gatien, out of his
nightclub career.

Female reporter: A New York hotspot
cooled down a little over the weekend.

Last night cops took away
the tunnel's liquor license

under orders from
the state liquor authority.

The West Side nightclub has
had a history of trouble with the law.

Male reporter: A state judge
ordered the lock back on the doors

of the tunnel nightclub for
the second weekend in a row.

The club is going to stay
closed until the judge decides

that there's no more drug
trafficking going on there.

Club owner Peter Gatien says that he is losing
a quarter of a million dollars in admissions

and his attorneys argue that the
club security is as tight as possible.

Owen: So it got to a point where
it's essentially a war of attrition.

Gatien was being hit on all fronts.

He was being hit every day
by "the New York post."

He was hit by the mayor's office.

He was being hit
by the community boards.

I think eventually this took its toll

and it essentially bankrupted him.

Dabrowski: I don't know the exact date,
but at 2:52 A.M.

This man comes walking down the stairs

and he says,
"I just filed for bankruptcy for Limelight."

And I says, "who the hell are you?"

He said, "it's very simple.
I'm an attorney."

Blah blah blah, the premises is closed.

He said, "take everything
out of here that you can."

And that's-- we walked away.

It was done. Finished.

Female reporter: And a piece of
nightclub history has been sold.

The Limelight went for more
than $3 million yesterday.

The new owners, flatiron entertainment,

plan to use the space
for an upscale disco.

And basically all the proceeds
went, you know,

for back taxes, both federal and state.

Financially, you know,
I was digging a deeper hole.

And emotionally I think
the whole family had just--

it was time to get realistic
and let's just lick our wounds

and figure something else out.

Brafman: It got so personal

that at the end of the day
I think the objective got lost.

And if the objective was to convict
Peter in federal court, they lost.

If the objective was to put Peter
out of business, they succeeded.

But what have they
accomplished other than putting

600 or 700 people out of jobs?

It's like death by 1000 cuts,

which it sort of was.

They never let me

peacefully run my businesses
or run my life.

But what the federal government
did to him afterwards

was even more offensive
to me as a citizen.

What happened really very simply
was I received a call

June of 2000 from Ben

who told me they needed help.

He was a bit panicked at the time.

Peter went to his probation officer

and he disappeared.

Peter was never actually a
citizen. He was a Canadian citizen.

Under the law, if you are
convicted of a felony,

even a state felony, even a tax felony

that has an element of fraud to it,

you're technically deportable.

Gatien: I'm freed at rikers

and told unequivocally
by an agent there

that you do not qualify
for deportation.

And two years later or thereabouts

somehow, you know, I'm now a candidate.

This was the United States
government not liking to lose.

This was, "we didn't get
Peter Gatien in court

so let's get rid of him.
We'll just deport him."

I was legally in the united
states for almost 30 years.

I have three American citizen children.

I have an American citizen wife.

Didn't commit a violent crime.
Haven't repeated a crime.

Got a certificate of relief
from the judge.

For me to be deported

for basically a sales tax violation,

that's pretty incredible.

He was basically banished
from the United States,

deprived of the right to live in the
United States with his wife and children.

That's a pretty strong penalty to pay

for the crime they alleged
that he committed.

I mean if he wanted to come
for his son's graduation,

if he wanted to enter
for his daughter's wedding,

if he wanted to enter
for any of these reasons,

he cannot do that without
specific permission to do so.

He did apply for that not that long ago

and they denied him that right.

I had a better net worth

when I left Canada
at probably ages 23, 24

than I did when I returned,
that's for sure.

Ben had given me $500 when I left.

And that's what I had on me.

Koch: In "les miserables"

there is inspector javert

who pursues a mayor
who was wrongly arrested

and who escaped from a prison.

I said, "Rudy, you are pursuing people

like inspector javert

with an intensity
that's not acceptable."

And he said, "who is inspector javert?"

Brafman: Giuliani on balance
was a good mayor in my opinion.

I think he did a lot of good.

I think he cleaned up a lot

that had to be cleaned up in New York

and made it in some respects safer.

But Peter Gatien did not impact
on the safety of New York.

It's clear that
the Giuliani administration

did not see the benefits of clubs.

Owen: Clubs used to
be incubators of culture.

Alig: Disco, punk, hip hop,

house music, techno,
electro, acid house--

all of these are genres of music
that began in nightclubs.

Without nightclubs would
they exist? I don't know.

Moby: Without the Limelight

I'm sure I'd be making music,

because I've been making
music my whole life.

And some of the bombastic music I make

is definitely the product
of spending way too much time

in the Limelight in
the late '80s, early '90s.

And yeah, the Limelight birthed
a lot of interesting culture.

What culture do nightclubs birth
these days? You know what I mean?

There's no nightlife now.

It's stand around and pose

and act like you're fabulous.

Yeah, you're drinking and you're
getting drunk but you're not partying.

Owen: I mean,
the Limelight was a kind of a high-water Mark

in terms of that kind
of era of decadence.

And once that crashed,
I mean that whole idea crashed with it.

And that really to me was the end

of that period of New York nightlife.

It wasn't about creativity anymore.

It was about something else altogether.

It was about consumerism.
It was about conformity.

Caruso: Now it's a bunch of small lounges,
small clubs.

No big club scene. No big party scene.

If some tosser turned up
in their lamborghini,

you know, in a Brooks brother's
suit flashing his black amex,

they wouldn't even get in
the front door.

But they became the kind
of new stars of clubland.

It wasn't the freaks anymore.

It was the wall street yuppies,
the realtors.

Gatien: New York's not
the city it was 10 years ago

as far as being an entertainment center

that the world respects.
It's not there anymore.

Weinberg: New York has
nightlife now. Is it better or worse?

Who knows? But I think we're
all a little bit less that people

like Peter are thrown out of the United
States for reasons such as that occurred here.

Owen: Other than being a tax cheat,

Peter Gatien didn't actually
commit any crimes.

It wasn't Peter Gatien
who murdered angel melendez.

It wasn't Peter Gatien
who killed Damon burett.

But he did end up paying
a very high price for it.

And I think that's important
to remember, you know?

Dabrowski: Peter's not a
terrorist. Peter's a club person.

Maybe he didn't pay all his taxes,

but he gave the city
what they were looking for.

Peter really knew the difference
between a good party and a bad one.

By the time Peter's running
those four joints,

owning those four joints,

he was one of the best guys
that ever did it.

Gatien: If you asked me
when I was 20 years old

I would have said,
"are you kidding? I know everything."

If you asked me at 25
I would have said,

"jeez, I was naive when I was
20 but certainly not now."

And if you asked me,

you know, five years ago
when I was 35, was I naive?

I'd say, "yeah,
I was probably somewhat naive,

but I think I've--

I'm a little more realistic now."

I would think if you
ask me when I'm 50,

were you naive and stupid at 40?

I'll say yeah.

♪ Yee-haw! ♪

♪ One, two, three and I come
with the redneck style ♪

♪ 'cause you know I'm getting
paid by the mile like avis ♪

♪ I pave this, fast save this,
everybody smile ♪

♪ and act gracious, see I Rob
banks, I pull pranks ♪

♪ sometimes I eat Franks
and knishes, best wishes ♪

♪ I'm vicious but here
I am again like c.N.N. ♪

♪ Delivery, my friend ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ Yes we bug a lot
and my friends is loud ♪

♪ and I'm more freaky than disco 2000 ♪

♪ I scream, I yell, I bark, I bite ♪

♪ I'll hit you with an egg
on a hot summer night ♪

♪ I never let the cops get wind of me ♪

♪ and I never ever ever say die ♪

♪ I never take myself too seriously ♪

♪ 'cause everybody knows
fat birds don't fly ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ means with the Greens,
murder on your spleen ♪

♪ living in a dream,
do you know what I mean? ♪

♪ Goateed indeed,
smart like John steed ♪

♪ I'll steal your girlie
and I'll steal your weed ♪

♪ I got so much flavor that I
always leave you chewin' ♪

♪ and I got so many styles you'll
be thinking I'm from the u.N. ♪

♪ I broke into the white house
and never got caught ♪

♪ and I'd be Neil Armstrong
if I was an astronaut ♪

♪ we're always optimistic
about human relations ♪

♪ we've got more friends
than my man Peter Gatien ♪

♪ we're always fun loving,
so don't start bugging ♪

♪ if your girlie comes up and
starts kissing and hugging ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal ♪

♪ stick 'em up, punk,
it's the fun lovin' criminal. ♪

Gatien: I loved America, man.

Canada's a great country
and I really love it

but opportunity-wise
there's no question

if you are focused and willing

to make the sacrifices
and are a little bit lucky,

opportunities in America
are second to none.

( Dance music playing )