A Georgia jury awarded $15.2 million to the parents of a man who was shot and killed in an illegal night club masquerading as a movie studio. The parents argued that it was a nuisance that the city should have shut down.
LaShelton Stanford was fatally shot after a fight broke out at Brick House Productions studio on Feb. 14, 2010. Shortly after his death, city officials closed the business, according to the Albany Herald.
From December 2007 until Stanford’s death, Brick House had more than 30 incidents of aggravated assault, armed robbery, weapons violations, narcotics violations and other crimes at a place that billed itself as a movie studio.
Virgil Adams of the law firm of Adams, Jordan and Herrington represented the family in the wrongful death case.
“So the city of Albany had all this knowledge, they clearly had knowledge that this place was dangerous, there were shootings, drugs in the place, sex on the dance floor, they did not have an alcohol license, they searched it on multiple occasions finding this stuff and yet they sat by and did not revoke the license until two weeks after this kid was killed,” Adams told the Albany Herald.
