Posts Tagged ‘strip club’
City Paper’s Best Of D.C. Issue Out Today
The Washington City Paper’s second Best Of D.C. issue since 1987 hits newsstands today. Since this is our staff’s second Best Of, we’re honoring the District’s second-bests in 2009. My picks—including “Second-Best Strip Club Excuse,” “Second-Best Item of Clothing to Remove at a Gay Bar,” and “Second-Best George Mason Personality” (pictured)—are after the jump.
Good Guys Arsonist to Be Sentenced Tomorrow
Vasile Graure, the Arizona truck driver convicted of setting fire to Glover Park strip club Good Guys in 2007, will be sentenced tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. The sentencing has been postponed several times already this year. Maybe tomorrow, we’ll finally get it over with.
On November 20, 2008, Graure was convicted of the following charges:
Good Guys Trial: Graure Found Guilty
The jury returned its verdict today in the trial of Vasile Graure, the truck driver accused of setting fire to Glover Park strip club Good Guys last year. Graure was convicted of the following charges:
- Three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed
- Four counts of assault with a dangerous weapon
- One count of aggravated assault while armed
- One count of mayhem while armed
- Two counts of burglary in the second degree while armed
- One count of arson
- One count of felony destruction of property
Graure’s sentencing hearing will be held in January.
Good Guys Trial: The Prosecution Rests
The government called its last witness this morning in its case against Vasile Graure, the man accused of setting fire to Glover Park strip club Good Guys last year. After listening to the testimony of MPD detective Frank Molina, who detailed the police’s procedures used to identify the suspect, the jury filed out. Then, the defense moved to have as many as eight of the charges against Graure dropped. Among other charges—arson, mayhem, burglary—Graure is charged with eight counts of assault with intent to kill.
Good Guys Trial: The Regular
Frank Raucci, a 59-year-old Takoma Park electronics technician, has been frequenting Good Guys for six to seven years. He knows the waitresses, and is a friend of manager Kathleen Lazorchack. He’s a regular. When he stopped into the club on the evening of Nov. 3, 2007, he sat down in front of stripper Gabriella’s stage and ordered a beer, waiting to speak to Lazorchack. In front of him was another customer he’d never seen before. Gabriella waved to Raucci in between moves. He got up and walked up to the stage to greet her. The other customer turned and watched him watch Gabriella, he says.
Good Guys Trial: The Arrest
MPD Detective Richard Espinosa is currently stationed in Djibouti, Africa, as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Last year, he helped arrest Vasile Graure, the defendant in the Good Guys arson case. Graure was arrested in Alexandria’s Days Inn several days after the fire. Espinosa testified today that police had put Graure under surveillance for about a day before he and another detective secured a warrant for Graure’s arrest. When Espinosa arrived at the hotel and entered Graure’s room, he noted what he described as “second degree burns” on his hands. The prosecution entered into evidence police photos of Graure’s arms, handcuffed behind his back. His arms appear bright red and chafed from the wrists up to the elbows.
Good Guys Trial: The Bachelor Party
On the night of the fire, Samuel Bond’s old Marine buddy invited him to celebrate his upcoming wedding. So Bond, 27, traveled from Richmond to Washington, D.C., and headed to the Good Guys strip club to join the bachelor party. At around 7 p.m., he sat down, had a couple drinks, talked with his buddy’s military friends, and watched naked women dance.
Read More “Good Guys Trial: The Bachelor Party” »
Good Guys Trial: The Gas Can
Vasile Graure returned to court today as the government continued its case against him. Graure is charged with eight counts of assault with intent to kill, one count of aggravated assault, one count of mayhem, two of burglary, one of arson, and one of property destruction exceeding $200, in connection with a fire in Glover Park strip club Good Guys last year. Graure—who appeared with a freshly shaved head, white shirt, and black polka-dot tie—had suffered an infection of the toe last Thursday but appeared healthy in the court room this morning. [Full disclosure: The Sexist missed trial on Friday].
At 10:30 this morning, the prosecution called Arefaine Berhane, an employee of the Glover Park Chevron station, to the stand. Berhane, who is Eritrean, speaks English at the Chevron station but appeared with a translator in court.
Good Guys Trial: Strip Club On Wheels
Yesterday, the prosecution in the case against accused strip club fire-starter Vasile Graure entered into evidence a sizable exhibit: A scale model of Glover Park’s Good Guys strip club, complete with three mini stripper stages, a mini bar, and mini patron figurines. Government prosecutors wheeled it in on a table, a curtain covering the set until the evidence was admitted. Then, the government called to the stand Jeffery Dean Gary, a 29-year veteran of the FBI and an expert in the construction of scale models.
Good Guys Trial: Postponed By Infection
Vasile Graure, the man accused of igniting a fire within Glover Park strip club Good Guys last year after being booted from the club, didn’t arrive in court today. “I got a call from the Department of Corrections,” announced Judge Robert Richter to the attorneys present this morning. “Vasile Graure has an infection in his toe.”
