Taylor Marshall, one of the people arrested last year during a protest on the Roebling Bridge, pleaded not guilty to felony rioting charges Monday afternoon. This was after they were detained Monday morning and transported to Kenton County Detention Center, where they spent much of the day before being released following the not guilty plea.

Marshall declined to be interviewed for this story, instead deferring to their attorney, Ben Potash. Marshall’s detainment was unexpected, according to statements from Potash.

“Taylor came in today not expecting to be detained,” said Potash.

Marshall was offered a plea deal on Sept. 16 to take a lower charge of failing to disperse, but Judge Kenneth Easterling withdrew this deal after a contentious exchange at the hearing that day.

At the Sept. 16 hearing, Marshall came up to the dais before the judge and pleaded guilty to failure to disperse. Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders was serving as prosecutor that day.

After Marshall entered their plea of guilty for failure to disperse, Easterling asked them, “What is it that you did?”

“Failed to disperse,” Marshall said.

“That’s a legal conclusion,” Easterling replied. “What did you do?”

“Uh, didn’t move fast enough,” Marshall said.

“Did police officers give you direction to leave the roadway, and you didn’t leave the roadway?” asked Sanders, briefly hesitating before adding, “fast enough?”

Marshall and Potash exchanged some words out of earshot, but Easterling interjected.

“This is where you tell the facts, ma’am,” Easterling said. “You need to be forthcoming about what you did.”

“OK, yes, when the police officer told me to leave the roadway, I did not leave fast enough,” Marshall said.

“You didn’t leave at all,” Easterling said. “That’s what you’re charged.”

Easterling then asked them where they lived and if they knew “that all this activity of crossing the bridge illegally was going to occur?”

“Judge, the charge is failure to disperse,” said Potash, “not conspiracy to commit a crime.”

“I get to take the factual basis for my plea,” said Easterling. “I don’t need you telling me what I need to do, sir.”

The judge then instructed the clerk to set a pretrial hearing, telling Marshall to “come back when you’re ready to confess.”

Marshall was indicted on the felony rioting charges on Sept. 24, according to court records. They were also indicted on three misdemeanor counts: resisting arrest, obstructing government operations and disorderly conduct. A pretrial conference took place before Judge Kenneth Easterling Monday morning, where Marshall was taken into custody. Their bond was set at $2,500.

Since rioting is a felony, the case was moved to the Kenton County Circuit Court, which handles felonies, before a new Judge, Mary Molloy. The arraignment hearing Monday afternoon was brief. At the hearing, Potash said Marshall had posted their bond and asked the court to waive the $2,500 and release Marshall due to their lack of criminal history. Molloy granted this request.

Potash addressed Marshall’s supporters, who had come out to see the hearing, outside of the courtroom.

“Taylor’s coming home,” Potash said. “The worst case scenario has been avoided.”

Fifteen people were arrested on the bridge last July. The arrests took place after a protest in Cincinnati branched off from a vigil for former Cincinnati Children’s chaplain Ayman Soliman, whom United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained following the revocation of his asylum status. At the time, Soliman was held at the Butler County Jail. He was later released.

Many of the arrested protesters were initially charged with rioting, but most of the people who were arrested were given plea deals before Judge Easterling last year, wherein they admitted to lower misdemeanor charges in exchange for having their rioting charges dropped. However, Taylor was one of four protesters whose probable cause for felony rioting was upheld.

Court records indicate that Marshall had been offered a lower charge of failure to disperse, a misdemeanor, last month before it was withdrawn. Many of the protesters who were granted plea deals after the protest were offered similar deals.

Marshall and three others–Brandon Hill, Suzanne Bratt and Logan Imber–have all sued the city alleging excessive force by the police on the bridge. Marshall initially filed the lawsuit in Kenton County Circuit Court, but it moved to federal court in July. The complaint names Covington Police Officer Ross Woodward, an unknown female officer and the city as defendants.

Marshall claims to have suffered a concussion at the hands of Woodward, which led to “serious memory loss and aphasia,” which is a deterioration in speech ability. Notably, Marshall’s complaint alleges that “at no point did Plaintiff Marshall resist arrest,” but Woodward allegedly acted aggressively anyway.

All of the civil cases are ongoing.

Potash characterized charging Marshall with rioting as disproportionate.

“Whatever you may think about it, having this poor person run through the ringer for over a year for this, and now facing a felony charge is just completely out of proportion to whatever you think might have happened that day,” Potash said.

A follow-up hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 30.

This story has been updated.

The post Roebling Bridge protester pleads not guilty to rioting charges after unexpected detainment appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

A deal is in the works by an out-of-town investor to possibly purchase, renovate and rebrand the Radisson Hotel in Covington, known for its distinct architecture and revolving restaurant.

Miami-based GenX Capital Partners informed LINK nky this week that it was heading up a deal with an unknown buyer to renovate the building into a Hard Rock REVERB hotel, a relatively new hospitality line from the well-known company of hotels, restaurants and casinos. 

The REVERB brand currently has two locations in Atlanta and Hamburg, Germany, with more under construction in the United States and internationally. The potential acquisition and rebranding would require extensive renovations to the building.

Mark McClure, a managing director with GenX Capital Partners, said in an email to LINK nky that his company is working to provide much of the financing for the buyer group, which “prefers to remain behind the scenes for now.”

McClure said the goal was to close the deal around Christmas, at which point a seven-to-nine-month renovation process could begin. The renovation would take place floor by floor, so most of the hotel could remain open during the process. The project is expected to cost $27 million. 

“We see a significant opportunity to build on this hotel’s landmark status and give people compelling reasons to visit — whether they are staying overnight, attending an event or coming in for dinner and a night out,” McClure said. 

McClure included a branding packet in his email with renderings and information on what the final product could look like. Notably, the packet teases to a possible partnership with the promotion company of former professional boxer Lennox Lewis for one to two fights in the hotel’s ballroom a month. McClure also said the plan includes the potential for live music, comedy shows, open mic nights and a completely redesigned lobby.

The packet also indicates the hotel is meant to augment the Hard Rock Casino across the river, which currently has no hotel space. 

As for the revolving restaurant, the Eighteen at the Radisson, McClure said the “final concept and entertainment programming are still being developed, but our vision extends well beyond a menu refresh.”

Chicago-based Atira Hotels has been brought on to manage the hotel and the renovation’s general contracting. Atira will also provide a portion of the equity investment. Atira Hotels currently manages 21 hotels in 12 states, according to the company’s website.

The post Investors eye Covington Radisson for purchase, renovation and rebrand appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

The City of Covington has a new bookstore!

The Wordcage, a new used book and media store, opened in Latonia last week.

Located on Decoursey Avenue near Ritte’s Corner, which serves as the neighborhood’s central commercial area, the new storefront hosted a grand opening and ribbon cutting Friday afternoon. Jessica Whyte, the store’s owner, said she was inspired to open the store after visiting Dark Star Bookstore in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

“I was like, ‘Wow, this place is so cool! You could just get lost here,'” Whyte said. “On our ride back, I was like, ‘How about I open a bookstore?'”

For now, the store is focusing exclusively on used books, but Whyte said the goal was to eventually sell other kinds of media, as well: CDs, vinyl albums, VHS tapes and the like. The store also has a large back room that Whyte hopes to open up to local nonprofits and community organizations as a meeting space.

“We’ll either do it free or for very cheap,” said Whyte. “That’s what we’re hoping to do. We’ll also have it available (for) author signings, book signings, just a variety of private events if necessary and if requested.”

Whyte got help in setting up the storefront from the Latonia Business Association and the local office of the Small Business Development Center, a state program aimed at helping entrepreneurs get on their feet. The Covington office is headed up by April Coffee, who’s also the president of the Latonia Business Association.

“We helped her secure the location, secure the lease, and then have worked with her from the start, basically, of the company,” said Coffee.

Coffee said the business was significant to the neighborhood in that it was in a walkable area surrounded by other local businesses. The Roost Latonia, a coffee shop, and Bard’s Burgers and Chili, a restaurant, are both nearby, so visitors to the neighborhood could have things to do when they came to town.

“It just helps bring awareness and bring visibility down here,” Coffee said. “Anytime that you’ve got a bookstore coming in, obviously, people want to come in.”

“We have a lot of small businesses coming to Ritte’s Corner,” said Mayor Ron Washington. “Small business is the heart and soul of our city.”

The Wordcage is set to receive a small business rent subsidy of $6,000 from the city. The Covington Board of Commissioners will vote on that incentive on Tuesday.

The Wordcage is open Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Keep up with them by following them on Facebook and Instagram.

The post New bookstore, The Wordcage, opens in Covington appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

Three more protestors who were arrested on the Roebling Bridge last year have filed lawsuits against the city of Covington and Covington police officers.

Logan Imber, Suzanne Bratt and Taylor Marshall are all alleging excessive force and the violation of their constitutional rights by Covington officers. Their suits now join that of Brandon Hill, who filed a similar lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday. Imber, Marshall and Bratt all filed their suits on Friday.

Marshall’s lawsuit is the only one filed in local court, specifically the Kenton County Circuit Court. His complaint names Covington Police Officer Ross Woodward, an unknown female officer and the city as defendants.

Marshall claims to have suffered a concussion at the hands of Woodward, which led to “serious memory loss and aphasia,” which is a deterioration in speech ability. Notably, Marshall’s complaint alleges that “at no point did Plaintiff Marshall resist arrest,” but Woodward allegedly acted aggressively anyway.

“Video evidence shows that police, not the protesters, were rioting; they assaulted numerous protestors,” Marshall’s complaint reads.

Marshall is represented by Louisville-based lawyer Benjamin Potash.

Bratt is also suing Woodward but in federal court, specifically the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Kentucky.

Bratt argues she suffered heavy bruising to her arms and back, as well as injuries to her knees and elbows after Woodward threw her onto the metal grating of the bridge.

“The day after the Incident, Suzanne’s physician documented swelling and tenderness in her right arm, right elbow, bilateral wrists, thoracic back and left knee ecchymosis and pinpoint tenderness over her ribs, consistent with the force described in this Complaint,” reads Bratt’s complaint. Bratt also argues that her experience lead to a diagnosis of PTSD.

She’s represented by Cincinnati-based attorney Justin Whittaker.

Finally, Imber’s complaint names Covington police officers Mandie Appleman, Kenzy Hotaling and Zachary Stayton (who is also named in Hill’s lawsuit) and the city as defendants. She is also represented by Whittaker.

Imber’s complaint describes how she had “emphatically objected” to Stayton’s use of punches against Hill. Body cam footage corroborates this. Imber was tased multiple times before five officers pinned her to the ground. After this, the complaint alleges, Stayton punched her in the head once, grabbed her hair, pressed her face into the sidewalk and told her to “shut the f*** up.” Stayton admits to delivering the punch in his use of force report “in an attempt to gain compliance.”

All of the recent lawsuits level Monell claims against Covington. Monell claims argue that allegedly unconstitutional behavior by a single officer reflects broader practices within an agency or jurisdiction as a whole, in this case the city, thereby making the entire agency responsible.

Fifteen people were arrested on the bridge last year. The arrests were preceded by a vigil in Cincinnati put on by inter-faith group Ignite for Peace for former Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Chaplain Ayman Soliman, who at the time was being detained in Butler County Jail following the revocation of his asylum status. A portion of the vigil had split off from the main locale at The Banks in Cincinnati and attempted to walk across the bridge, where they encountered police.

Many of the protesters took plea deals in exchange for having their initial felony rioting charges dismissed, but Marshall and Imber were among the four who had the probable cause for rioting upheld. Marshall’s complaint states that he finally took a plea deal on Thursday of last week to accept a lower charge of failure to disperse.

Court records indicate Imber also recently plead down to a misdemeanor charge. She was arraigned for her misdemeanor on Wednesday.

Bratt, on the other hand, was among those who had her rioting charges dropped, but she decided to take her misdemeanor charge of failure to disperse to trial. A jury found her guilty in February after a roughly six-hour trial.

“The events that occurred on the Roebling Bridge in July 2025 posed serious public safety concerns,” the city said in a written statement. “The City remains committed to ensuring Covington is a safe place for all residents and visitors. Because both the criminal case and the civil litigation remain pending, the City has no further comment at this time.”

You can view and download the complaints below.

The post Three more Roebling Bridge protestors file lawsuits against Covington appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

One of the protestors who was arrested on the Roebling Bridge last summer has filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court alleging the Covington Police Department used excessive force.

Brandon Hill and his attorney, Marvin Knorr, filed his lawsuit on Wednesday.

In addition to excessive force, Hill also alleges that police “deprived him of his procedural and substantive due process rights protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution,” according to the complaint.

The police and protestors clashed as the protestors attempted to cross the bridge from the Ohio side. Nick Swartsell, a reporter with WVXU, was on the scene and recorded several videos that later became widely circulated among news media and on social media. One video shows Covington Police Officer Zachary Stayton, who is named in the new suit, repeatedly punching Hill in the head. Photos of the injuries Hill sustained are included in his complaint.

Hill’s new lawsuit seeks what’s called a Monell claim against the city and department, which argues that allegedly unconstitutional behavior on the part of a single officer is reflective of broader practices within the department as a whole, thereby making the entire agency responsible. Monell claims have been leveled against Covington PD in the past.

An internal affairs investigation released in November found Stayton had violated department protocols during the bridge arrests but not for punching Hill. In fact, the investigation found his actions against Hill were “to be within policy and current departmental practice,” according to Sergeant Jeff Cook, who’s responsible for training at the department.

Instead, it was for his actions against another protestor and actions during the clearing of the bridge after the protest had been broken up, for which he was docked for “unbecoming conduct” after cursing and shoving a protestor for seemingly no reason. Stayton was placed on a 30-day suspension, as a result.

Notably, Stayton told the IA detectives during the investigation that “he had never been trained to handle a situation like this. He stated that he never thought he would be fighting someone on the bridge. He said that he wasn’t prepared for the situation and wished that he had been trained better.”

At multiple times throughout Stayton’s interviewing process, the detectives asked him where he learned to punch and strike people to gain compliance, and he said either during the police academy or through the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training, the state agency responsible for training recruits.

The city issued a statement following the filing the suit:

The City of Covington is aware of the federal lawsuit recently filed by one of the individuals facing criminal charges related to the July 2025 incident on the Roebling Suspension Bridge.

As a matter of policy, the City does not typically comment on active litigation, the statement reads. However, it is important to note that the individual who filed the lawsuit is currently being prosecuted by the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office after a Kenton County Judge reviewed the evidence presented in the case and determined there was probable cause for the felony charges, allowing the matter to move forward through the criminal justice system.

The events that occurred on the Roebling Bridge in July 2025 posed serious public safety concerns. The City remains committed to ensuring Covington is a safe place for all residents and visitors.

Because both the criminal case and the civil litigation remain pending, the City has no further comment at this time.

Hill is seeking compensatory and punitive damages in his lawsuit. He is demanding a trial by jury. Read his full complaint below.

Hill was one of four protestors who had his felony rioting charge upheld after his arrest. His felony case in county court has not had any hearings since last July, when the court upheld the probable cause. Taylor Marshall, another protestor, has likewise not had a subsequent hearing since last July.

The remaining two protestors whose probable cause was upheld, Ameer Ayman Alkayali and Logan Imber, both later had their rioting charges amended to lower misdemeanor charges, according to court records. Imber was arraigned for her misdemeanor on Wednesday, the same day Hill filed his federal suit. Alkayali’s arraignment is scheduled for August. Everyone else who was arrested either took plea deals or has already gone to trial.

The post Roebling protester sues Covington police, city for excessive force appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

The live music scene in the Cincinnati area has been reeling over the past week following turmoil at one of the region’s oldest venues, the Madison Theater in Covington.

The operators of the theater announced unexpectedly last week that the venue would be closing. This turned out not to be entirely accurate – both the former operators of the venue and a representative of the venue’s owner later confirmed the theater was planning to reopen under new management. However, it did mean the shows that were scheduled for that weekend had to be moved.

“I found out Friday morning…,” said James “Sandwich Jones” Robertson, guitarist for Your Disease, one of the bands slated to play Covington Metal Fest at the theater before it got moved to Southgate House Revival in Newport. “I found out from a series of group chats.”

Sandwich estimated about 400 people turned out to the show in Newport, which was “pretty good,” he said, even if it was less than last year (possibly due to the sudden venue change).

Although existing information about the Madison Theater suggests it will remain a music venue, the suddenness of everything has stoked some anxiety among the DIY music scenes in the Cincinnati area, especially among the punk, hardcore and metal scenes, whose way of doing things at times puts them at odds with both mainstream cultural mores and the city.

Sandwich said the DIY scene in the Cincinnati area began seeing a resurgence around 2024, especially after several mainstays of the scene, such as Legends Bar & Venue and the Northside Yacht Club, either closed or reduced the number of live shows they were hosting. As a result, Sandwich said, trying to find reliable spaces to book shows became a game of “whack-a-mole.”

“There’s always been DIY venues, but Legends was a safe haven for all of that stuff,” Sandwich said. “It was not the greatest venue in the world, but it was ours to some degree.”

Newer bands and younger bands, especially, “they can’t play at Bogart’s. They’re starting out, they’re newer, they’re a hometown band. There needs to be spaces that are not alcohol establishments for people to be able to be in a community and enjoy music,” said DSGN CLLCTV Founder Julia Green.

Green is the daughter of nationally renowned cartoonist Justin Green and founded DSGN CLLCTV (literally the words ‘design collective’ without vowels) originally as an alternative art gallery and display space. In time, however, the organization also began hosting punk and hardcore shows for local bands. The building is currently being renovated to bring it up to code, but Green said the goal was to reopen in the future. They’re still organizing shows at Heart of Northside.

The nature of punk, hardcore and metal inevitably lends itself to a DIY ethos because it’s difficult to find a mainstream venue that’s willing to host what to outsiders looks like aimless violence and noise.

“Yeah, the music can seem a little aggressive and scary,” said Chris Phelps Carrillo. “The aggressiveness is kind of the point.”

Phelps Carrillo said he had been involved in the DIY scene for about a year, booking and running shows around town, “especially for newer bands.”

“There is a method to the chaos,” Phelps Carrillo said. “On the outside people are just like, ‘no, this is just straight up assault…’ The side they don’t see is immediately after, those people will turn around and check on them to make sure they’re okay. If they get knocked down, they’ll make sure they pick them back up. They always take care of each other, because everyone has an understanding of what the scene’s about.”

“If you’re a jazz band, or you’re a pop country act, you could probably get away with playing in the middle of a parking lot and a busy part of downtown Cincinnati,” Sandwich said. “And everybody would just be like, “Oh, that’s really nice, that’s great. We love that our city is so enriched with talent.’ But heavy music, if we even pretended to do that, it would be shut down.”

Green argued the loss of a DIY space erodes the region’s organic cultural reproduction, especially among youth, who may not have access to or the resources to break into mainstream spaces.

“It’s hard to find spots for these types of shows because when people hear kids…, moshing, any of that, they just are like ‘that’s a liability I don’t want,'” Green said. “Kids are stupid. They do stupid things, but they need a place to go.”

Phelps Carrillo talked about the closure of a DIY space earlier this year called The Abyss, located in an old warehouse on Spring Grove Avenue, which only managed to play a handful of shows before getting shut down.

The show that led to the shutdown occurred on Feb. 28, Phelps Carillo said, and was an anti-ICE show, aiming to raise money for families that had been displaced by immigration authorities. The venue, perhaps unfortunately for the show-goers, was right across the street from Cincinnati Fire Station 12.

“The fire department came in, and they were just like, ‘oh, we wanted to see what’s going on,'” Phelps Carillo said.

He added that the fire department went through the building and even seemed genuinely interested in the show before leaving. Then they came back with the cops, Phelps Carillo said. No one was arrested, but “they just opted to immediately get it shut down right off the bat,” Phelps Carillo said. “So, that ended up being the last show for there.”

A public records request for police communications didn’t yield anything, but CityBeat has also requested reports from the fire department to corroborate Phelps Carillo’s story. We will update this story once we have the records.

Given this context, it’s easy to see why the news of Madison Theater made people in the scene uneasy. An event like Metal Fest was open to all ages, hosted a kind of music that would make polite company blush (or call the police), had comparatively cheap admission, and gave an opportunity for young and new bands to showcase their work and build a fan base.

There’s no evidence currently to suggest this will be the case, but the fear within the local music community is that with the former operators gone, a concert conglomerate like Live Nation would come to manage the theater. Live Nation is arguably the antithesis of the DIY attitude—corporate, distant, expensive, inaccessible. To put things into perspective, a ticket to Metal Fest this year was $20 and gave you access to multiple shows. General admission to a Live Nation venue like Bogart’s could easily run double that, depending on the performer.

Not everyone who spoke with CityBeat was pessimistic, though. John Hays, who’s now 40, has been in the scene for years and said DIY spaces getting shut down was part of the process. Hays is currently in a band called Emanating Peace.

“I’ve seen it happen so many times,” Hays said. “There’s a little bit of a lull, and maybe a couple shows miss out on coming through, but it always comes together.”

He gave a view venues where shows and DIY spaces could still be found: Heart of Northside, Comet, Lambda, Swine City, where one of the acts that was slated to play at Madison Theater last week got moved to.

“This sort of the spirit of the whole thing…,” Hays said. “There’s always venues closing, and somebody else steps up, and you find somewhere else to be. The mouse trap doesn’t eliminate rodents.”

The post ‘The mousetrap doesn’t eliminate rodents’ Cincinnati’s DIY music scene persists despite venue closures appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

Despite Madison Theater announcing Friday it was closing, the venue owner’s lawyer told CityBeat that’s not actually the case.

Attorney Dave Kruer said the venue is “not permanently closed,” but that operator Frank Hulefeld simply “can’t operate there anymore.”

The announcement cited “sudden termination of our lease” as the reason behind the abrupt closure.

Hulefeld has been managing the venue since 2021 and operates an LLC called Madison Theater Presents (the company itself has been operating the venue since 2024). Hulefeld formerly owned the Madhatter on Scott Boulevard in Covington. CityBeat has reached out Hulefeld multiple times since the news broke, but he has not responded to comment or provided additional information.

The theater’s landlord is an LLC called ENC Properties, which owns three buildings on Madison, including the ones that make up the venue. ENC Properties has a Lillian Esther Johnson listed as its registered agent with the state of Kentucky. Johnson and her husband own a house in Taylor Mill, according to Kenton County Property records.

CityBeat was not able to reach Johnson directly, but Kruer said she used to operate the venue herself.

Kruer said the goal was to have the venue “opened under a new operator within the next couple of weeks.”

Although he said some companies had been lined up, he was not at liberty to say which ones.

So, what happened?

Much is still unknown about the circumstances of the closure, but there is some information that’s publicly available. Hulefeld’s announcement mentions the revocation of the venue’s insurance policy after a patron fell on one of the venue’s interior stairways.

A lawsuit against ENC Properties and the theater managers was filed in Kenton County Circuit Court on Oct. 28 by Florence resident Sheryl Zollars. According to the text of Zollars’ complaint, Zollars fell and sustained injuries on a stairway inside the theater leading to the stage early November 2024.

The suit alleges that the venue should have been aware of any hazards in the building, and that it should have warned patrons accordingly.

“The dangerous conditions in Defendants’ premises included, but were not limited to, the lack of a handrail and inadequate lighting for the stairway…,” reads the complaint. “The Defendants should have anticipated the incident on the stairway that caused Plaintiff’s injuries.”

The complaint goes on to allege the stairway’s conditions could have possibly violated building codes. The theater denied many of the allegations in its answer to the complaint.

Zollars’ lawyer, Scott Guenther, informed CityBeat that Zollars suffered a fracture in her right ankle and her upper tibia as a result of the fall. She spent nine days in the hospital and then two weeks in a rehab facility.

The court granted a default judgement in favor of Zollars in January. A hearing was held the same month, and the theater later filed a motion for discovery of evidence in February. A deposition of Zollars was initially scheduled for June 10, but this was later rescheduled. Evidence discovery in the case is ongoing.

Guenther did not know if his client’s case contributed to the rift between Madison Theater Presents and ENC; he knew as much as what he’d seen in the news, he said.

A lawyer representing Madison Theater Presents in that suit, Daniel Martell, declined to comment altogether. Kruer could not discuss if the lawsuit played a role in the two entities’ separation.

There are three other lawsuits against ENC Properties and the theater in the Kenton County Court database, two of which are at least nine years old. The last one is a foreclosure case due to outstanding tax liens, filed on May 14 against one of ENC’s properties, but Kruer said that outstanding tax liens against ENC’s properties should be resolved in the near future. CityBeat has reached out to the city for more information.

A hearing related to an incident of crowd control at the theater took place in front of the city’s Alcohol Beverage Control Board on Thursday, but there’s no indication that incident relates to the theater’s closure. Kruer explicitly denied it played a role.

As for the venue’s future shows, Kruer said “we’re working on trying to get a transition in effect” and that more information would be released once things were finalized.

Anyone with any information about the case that lead to the theater’s closure or the future of the shows scheduled at the venue can contact CityBeat at news@citybeat.com to speak to a reporter. Anonymous tips are welcome. We will make updates to this story as more information becomes available.

Kane Mitten contributed reporting to this story.

This story has been updated.

The post Hold up! Madison Theater is ‘not permanently closed’ appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

Madison Theater, a popular music venue on Madison Avenue in Covington, will cease hosting events for college-age audiences after a show at the theater on May 30 led to safety concerns and police involvement.

“What happened was a shame,” said theater owner Frank Hulefeld. “It really was very chaotic; I’m not going to deny that, but I felt like from the venue’s point of view we were very proactive.”

The incident occurred late in the night of Saturday, May 30 and into the subsequent morning, according police reports that CityBeat obtained through a public records request. Covington’s Alcohol Beverage Control Administrator Lydia Northcutt informed Hulefeld in a June 2 letter that the theater had potentially run afoul of Kentucky laws mandating that liquor licensees prevent their premises from becoming disorderly. The city held a hearing of its Alcohol Beverage Control Board Thursday morning to discuss the situation and possible solutions.

CityBeat also requested body cam footage from the incident, but our request was denied as the footage is still being used in an active investigation, according to Covington Police.

Hulefeld said the venue recorded the presence of 947 people at the venue the night of the incident, including venue staff members. Multiple acts were playing that night, but the one that led to the issues occurred in the main room of the theater, where a DJ was playing to a crowd of mostly college students from UC and Xavier.

“What ended up happening is all these groups of people were interconnected because they were part of the UC and Xavier African-American Greek fraternity system,” Hulefeld said. “So, they all were two degrees of separation from knowing each other. It was a party that was promoted to celebrate a lot of the students graduating. I think they were just in a good mood, word spread quickly, more people showed up than any of us had anticipated.”

Members of the Greek community did not attend Thursday’s hearing.

Three officers were staffing the event as a security detail that night. As the crowd grew in size, people began stacking out onto the sidewalk, waiting to the enter the building. Finally, the theater decided to cut the show off early.

“After conversing with officers on duty, more and more we kept asking people, ‘Hey, look, we’re not letting any more people in, can you guys please go home?'” said Hulefeld. “They didn’t listen.”

Additional police units began arriving around 11 p.m, according to police reports. Police reports also indicate the crowd’s size had grown too large, potentially risking blocked exits.

Police closed off the 700 block of Madison Avenue to give room for the crowd to exit the theater. Police reports state the theater stopped the show at 11:37 p.m. As the crowd moved out of the theater the police “sounded the airhorn, the siren, and activated the emergency equipment in an attempt to gain the attention of the crowd. We then made announcements to disperse.” It took about 20 minutes for the theater to empty out, according to police reports.

Police argue they had issued multiple commands to the crowd to disperse and move southward out of the area, but the crowd failed to do so in a timely fashion. The police used pepper ball guns, nonlethal riot control weapons resembling paint ball guns, to disperse the crowd.

“Officers targeted the roadway in front of the crowd with pepper balls to maximize the effect of the OC powder and prevent injury from direct impact on participants in the crowd,” reads one report. “This had the intended effect: The crowd immediately left the area.”

The police made a single arrest of 19-year-old Cincinnati resident Dahron Jackson, who was charged with disorderly conduct and public intoxication. Jackson was arraigned in Kenton County on Monday and has a diversion hearing scheduled for July 27.

“In the last 28 months, we’ve done close to 500 shows and never had an incident,” Hulefeld told CityBeat.

The city board did not place any binding conditions on the venue or revoke its liquor license; the board members seemed pleased with the measures the theater was planning to take to avoid similar incidents.

“Madison Theater has been a great partner for the city, and you’ve been here a long time pulling off some amazing events,” said City Manager Sharmili Reddy. “This one was an unfortunate one, and I think I’m really encouraged that you’re already looking at proactive ways to prevent these things from happening.”

“I think there’s an easy solution to make sure this doesn’t happen again, which is just we’re not going to do any more college parties…,” Hulefeld said. “It’s not really a part of our traditional bookings. We book more national touring acts and local bands.”

Hulefeld didn’t seem to hold any ill will towards the crowd.

“The kids were so polite and friendly and accommodating,” Hulefeld said. “It was just, you get that energy of a lot of kids in their early 20s together… they just made a mistake.”

This story has been updated.

The post No more college parties at Madison Theater following May incident appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

A popular Northern Kentucky Farmer’s Market is getting a new home.

The City of Covington is set to buy a small tract of land on Pike Street from Covington Independent Public Schools with the hope of eventually redeveloping it into space for housing, commercial space, parking and possibly a new home for the Covington Farmers Market, which currently operates on Washington Street.

“The city’s been dancing around a more permanent location for the farmers market for quite some time,” said Covington Commissioner Tim Downing.

The purchase agreement for the land will appear on the consent agenda for next week’s meeting of the Covington Board of Commissioners.

The property is located near John G. Carlisle Elementary School on Pike Street between Holman and Banklick Streets and includes a small parking lot, some open space and an old bank building. The land is only about three-quarters of an acre. The Covington Board of Education has offered the land to the city for $300,000.

Although the purchase is set to occur under the aegis of the city, the redevelopment of the plot will be headed up in a partnership between the Covington Motor Vehicle Parking Authority and a local nonprofit, the Center for Great Neighborhoods. The Covington Economic Development Authority has recommended $500,000 to partially bankroll the redevelopment.

“We’re super excited to be a part of it,” said Center for Great Neighborhoods Executive Director Shannon Ratterman.

The concept plan for how the area will be redeveloped is still very early in the planning process, but it includes expanding parking for the area, constructing a pavilion to permanently house the farmers market, as well as areas for commercial development and housing. The city will also build a sidewalk between Holman and Banklick.

The housing, said Covington Economic Development Director Tom West, would be “specifically targeted toward teachers in the area, so affordable to them.”

The school district put several conditions in their offer, mostly to preserve the area around the school. These included height restrictions on buildings in the space and explicit use restrictions for the farmers market, parking and open spaces. The city plans to subdivide the land into two parcels and sell each one to the parking authority and the Center for Great Neighborhoods, respectively.

“In the eight and a half years I’ve been here, this has been one of the easiest (projects),” said West. “Everybody is rowing the boat in the same direction.”

The city hopes to have development agreements from both the parking authority and the Center for Great Neighborhoods by the end of the month. The Covington Board of Commissioners will vote on the purchase agreement for the land at their meeting on June 9.

In addition, the city plans to host a public open house so members of the public can see details about the project plans on June 10 between 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at John G. Carlisle Elementary on 910 Holman Street.

This story originally appeared at linknky.com.

The post What will the new home of the Covington Farmers Market look like? appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

Skateboarders and cops don’t always have the best relationships, even when there aren’t explicit rules against skateboarding on the books. But what if it didn’t have to be that way?

A new fellowship of skaters in Covington is trying to carve out designated spaces for skaters around the city, ease the local DIY skater community’s interactions with the police and maybe bring about some overall neighborhood improvements.

“All of my life up until now, here [in Covington] especially, it’s always felt like a criminalized thing,” said Sam Phillips, a Covington skater who first began developing the idea of the fellowship.

Phillips has dubbed the idea the S.P.O.T.S. Fellowship. The word is an acronym for Safe Places Offering Transitions for Skaters (although, as we’ll see, other people are welcome, too) and a reference to skaters’ habits of finding, well, spots around town with features ideal for skating.

Phillips has traveled widely and said he first developed the idea after observing how other cities had created spaces for skaters that were organically integrated into the cities’ geography. Seattle and Vancouver were a couple of his go-to examples.

“I started really seeing how cities were just incorporating a lot of places to skate within the city,” Phillips said, “not necessarily like a park but creating spaces that were friendly to skaters, something that anybody could be in.”

Phillips is also civically active – he’s a frequent sight at Covington city meetings – and has already been making inroads with local elected leadership and the police. One Covington Commissioner, Tim Acri, is even a skater himself.

“When Sam presented the S.P.O.T.S. idea to me, I thought it was amazing,” Acri said. “I mean, I grew up skateboarding, as well. I still skateboard. I have a skateboard in the back of my truck right now, actually.”

Covington doesn’t have a lot of unoccupied space, plus, the city’s budgetary stresses, Acri said, would likely prevent the building of a city-sponsored skate park. Still, by designating off dedicated spaces in the city, police and skaters could avoid unnecessary conflict.

Phillips presented his idea to some of the city commissioners, the mayor, police and other city departmental leadership late last year. The city didn’t seem opposed to the idea. What’s more, DIY projects like the S.P.O.T.S. have a precursor in the region in the form the Newport DIY, located under the I-471 overpass near Newport High School. Skaters often simply refer to it as “the bridge.”

“As opposed to the city trying to find funds for a multi-million dollar skate park, this could be a project where it’s more grassroots,” said Derek Toebbe, artist and skater who was heavily involved in the Newport DIY and who is now helping Phillips get the S.P.O.T.S. up and running.

The DIY ethos is a big part of skating culture—the Newport DIY was built by skaters themselves. The key difference between the S.P.O.T.S. and the Newport DIY, Toebbe said, was that the Covington project would be more open and more seamlessly integrated into the community. Models already exist abroad, most notably in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“You could use reclaimed materials,” Toebbe said. “You could make it half garden, half skate spot, but sort of open use for the public.”

Overall, the point is to make safe community gathering spaces, where even people who aren’t skating can gather, interact, make art or just sit and talk.

“I want these spaces to be a place where people can sit and take a breath and even meditate, or even be inspired,” Phillips said. Skaters tend to keep the areas they frequent clean, he added, because it makes it safer to skate. As a result, the spots would not only “beautify” the surrounding area, he said, but also improve pedestrian safety.

“We should be able to trust our law enforcement,” Phillips said. “And one of the things that I want to do is … reimagine and rewrite what this relationship is between cops and skaters and in general people who are just trying to get around town.”

Phillips and the rest of the fellowship have identified some spots around town that could serve ideal sites; some are already well-known among skaters. You can get more details at samueltphillips.com/s-p-o-t-s-project.

Want to join the Fellowship of the S.P.O.T.S.? Send an email to covingtonkyspots@gmail.com

The post These Covington skaters aim to change attitudes, build community appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.