Majestic Sports Bar owner, manager charged - WTVM.com-Columbus, GA News Weather & Sports

Majestic Sports Bar owner, manager charged

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COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) -

Nathaniel Smith, club manager of Majestic Sports Bar, was charged Wednesday with failure to have an ABC card and nine counts of allowing underage people into the club.

Owner James Weaver is facing one count of failure to have an ABC card. They are scheduled to appear in Recorder's Court on February 8.

The charges come after Weaver's repeated claims that nothing illegal was taking place inside the club and that he held no responsibility for business violations as property owner.

We spoke with a Columbus mother who has lived next door to the Majestic Sports Bar for nearly 15 years.

"I am saddened that it took for so many people to get hurt and to die honestly; for someone to finally step in and say, 'Guess what: you are partly responsible for what goes on in your business establishment,'" said Tiffani Stacy.

Reverend Willie Phillips has been campaigning for the city to investigate this club for years, sometimes at the risk of his own safety.  He has organized weekly demonstrations outside the property and has been threatened by people who wanted him to stop. 

Phillips said he's happy with the new development, but he wishes it happened sooner, "

It's a sad situation, my heart hurt because a young man had to die before people stepped up and said, ‘Hey, we've got to do something about this.'  I've been calling attention to this problem for a long time now.  A lot of people since then have been hurt, been shot, been killed, but it took an educated young man to get killed in this place before someone stood up and said 'enough is enough.'"

Phillips is hoping that these charges lead to the club's eventual closure.

The investigation into what happened at the Majestic Sports club on New Year's Eve is still being conducted by Columbus police.

So far police have arrested Dequandrea Truitt in connection with the murder of CSU student Charles Foster Jr. and shooting and injuring six others.

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