Knockouts takes fight to court to remain open

Knockouts is punching back in court, asking a judge to allow the Downtown strip club to operate as a bar during a temporary suspension ordered by Albuquerque officials.

A city spokeswoman responded Wednesday that the legal action is unnecessary because city officials have allowed Knockouts to continue operating as a liquor establishment.

Knockouts' attorney, Paul Kennedy, said the city has flip-flopped about allowing the club to remain open as a bar.

"Every time we turn around, we are getting different instructions," Kennedy said Wednesday. "I need an order from the court to make them stop this."

Kennedy filed a petition Monday asking a state district court judge to issue a preliminary injunction that would allow Knockouts "to reopen as a non-sexually oriented business" that serves alcohol "as it is fully licensed to do."

Kennedy said that on Tuesday, he received a letter from the City Attorney's Office allowing Knockouts to remain open as a liquor establishment at 311 Central Avenue. But he said city officials shuttered Knockouts twice in the past month, each time with Albuquerque Police Department officers in tow.

Albuquerque spokeswoman Ava Montoya said the petition is moot because the city has authorized Knockouts to reopen as a bar.

"On March 19, 2024, The City Legal Department advised counsel for Knockouts that it could continue to operate under its liquor license so long as it did not attempt to operate as a sexually oriented business," Montoya wrote.

"City legal reiterated this on (Tuesday) after Knockouts filed its petition," she said. "Because the city has already clarified this, there is no need for a ruling from any court."

But the petition alleges that the city's actions don't match its words.

On March 19, two code enforcement officers and five uniformed police officers showed up at the club, the petition said.

Knockouts' "employees were ordered to shut the business and not to open in any form or fashion that day or for 30 days thereafter," the petition contends.

Knockouts employees asked the city officials if it could continue to operate as a licensed liquor establishment, but not as a sexually oriented business.

City officials "refused to permit this and ordered a complete shutdown of the business," the petition said.

The closure came a day after a city hearing officer found that Knockouts violated its sexually oriented business license and ordered the 30-day suspension, it said.

Knockouts has a second city-issued business license that allows it to operate as a bar, the club argues in its petition.

"The actions of the city in completely shutting down a licensed, legally operated liquor establishment are completely lawless," the petition argues.

Knockouts "has a license to sell liquor at 311 Central NW and has at all times been in compliance with all state regulations and statutes regarding the sale of alcoholic beverages," Kennedy wrote.

Knockouts has been duking it out with the city since Dec. 22, when city inspectors found that the club lacked identification records for one of its dancers as required under its permit.

The inspection came just days after Louis Mugishawimana, 16, allegedly shot and killed a man after entering the club with a fake ID. Mugishawimana is charged with first-degree murder in the Dec. 19 shooting death of Earl Romo. No trial date has been set in that case.

The petition was filed against both the city and Mayor Tim Keller, who has publicly declared his intention to permanently shutter the club.

Knockouts also faces action from the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, alleging the club violated its state liquor license. Those charges include allowing a minor on the premises and distributing alcohol to a minor.

Kennedy said those charges remain pending.