They didn't wait long after a judge's new order to break out the booze Tuesday at the scandal-struck Gold Club. "Come on out to the Gold Club and drink and see naked women," crowed club attorney Alan Begner to reporters gathered around the club.
It took only a 75-minute hearing for Fulton County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Wright to overturn Mayor Bill Campbell's Monday suspension of the club's liquor license - a suspension which might have suffocated business at the club, which was hit last week with a massive federal indictment involving prostitution and mob protection.
Wright ruled that the allegations are serious but the liquor license "is a protectable property interest."
On Monday night, club workers had removed the hootch from the grounds, but when Wright announced her ruling Tuesday, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gold Club owner Steven Wright sent two workers from the court to the club to restock.
Campbell used his emergency powers to suspend the club's license in the wake of the indictment. His plan was to suspend the license until the Licensing Review Board would recommend whether or not to revoke it outright on Dec. 8.
"If these charges do not constitute an emergency, then I am simply unaware of what would under any circumstances," Campbell told the Journal after Tuesday's court order.
The club is described in the massive indictment as a haven for prostitution which over-bills customers, gives celebrities - including, reportedly, members of the New York Knicks basketball team - free sex, bribes police, and buys protection from the Gambino organized crime family. Kaplan and fifteen others were named in the indictment.
Kaplan is also accused of using his alleged Mafia connections to intimidate competitors. He and all other defendants deny the accusations.
But senior assistant city attorney Lisa Morchower tells the Journal the license suspension was needed "because criminal activity was continuing at the club, despite the charges" in the indictment.
If the Licensing Review Board votes to revoke the Gold Club's license, the paper says, the bar could continue selling alcohol while that decision is on appeal.
