Crime-prone strip club temporarily shut down

A judge on Wednesday approved a temporary restraining order sought by the Columbus City Attorney’s office to temporarily shut down Rachel’s Gentlemen’s Club, the notorious Far East Side strip club that was the scene of a fatal shooting earlier this month.

Since 2015, city officials say there have been 135 police runs to the club at 6065 Channingway Boulevard, off Brice Road north of the Interstate 70 interchange. They say the club has been plagued by shootings, assaults and robberies, with both customers and employees as victims.

About 2:36 a.m. on June 1, officers found Prince Michael Jackson, 35, fatally shot in a parking lot off Brice following a fight after he left Rachel’s.

That was the last straw, Assistant City Attorney Bill Sperlazza said. “The pattern there is there is violence inside, violence outside,” he said.

According to the complaint filed in Franklin County Environmental Court, some of the incidents include the robbery and assault of an employee by other employees on Feb. 1, 2015, and a man shot in a parking lot after a fight inside Rachel’s on Aug. 19, 2015.

Judge Daniel Hawkins signed the order for the temporary shutdown, and city officials closed the club Wednesday afternoon. Columbus attorneys will be back in court on July 3, where they’ll be looking to shut the club down for a year, Sperlazza said.

Channingway Properties of Columbus owns the property. Hetzbach Corporation, owned by Ramona Hetzel of Dublin and Franz Schwarzbach of Columbus, operates the club. Schwarzbach could not be reached for comment.