La Esquina

Want to find out whether the bouncer who assaulted you is a licensed security guard as the law requires? Try here.

Click here to read a letter from Council Speaker Christine Quinn and our reply.

LA ESQUINA OWNERS

Architect Derek Sanders

derek@dereksanders.net

Serge Becker

(also the owner of Cafe Select, Joe's Pub, 205, The Box...)

Their drug smuggling "Social Connector" and errand boy Cordell Lochin

who was on the premises, saw most of this happen and did nothing; read on

and "restaurateur" James Gersten
(who's apparently too embarrassed to be photographed or interviewed in connection with La Esquina)

and featuring Nadine Johnson as their high-end publicist
(she must have her hands full with this bunch)

106 Kenmare Street at Lafayette Street
New York City

Don't want to take our word about the events described below? Check out some of the reviews on Citysearch. We are trying to track some of these people down because clearly they were witnesses.
DID YOU WITNESS ANY OF THE FOLLOWING INSIDE THE BAR, IN THE STAIRWELL LEADING DOWN, IN THE MEXICAN RESTAURANT UPSTAIRS OR ON THE SIDEWALK? This was Saturday night 10/7/06 around midnight. If you saw something please email LaEsquinaAssault@yahoo.com .

Lit cigarettes in the face. People being dragged up flights of steps. Assault, battery, menacing. Threats of rape. Abu Graib? Guantanamo? Sing Sing? No, it all happened to us at La Esquina.

...While his two coworkers assaulted me.

Multiple bruises to my right arm from being thrown to the floor and dragged up the stairs by two employees, a bald, muscular black male and a skinny black male with dredlocks. I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and long-sleeved pullover sweater at the time.

THIS MAN
(identified to us by New York casting directors as washed-up actor
DOMINIC CHIANESE, JR.)
ASSAULTED MY GIRLFRIEND...

"I will take you around the corner and rape you like a woman. I will rape you. I will rape you, then ignore you. In the old days you would be dead."

Another angle of the right arm bruises.

Dominic Chianese, Jr. (who according to a posting on his message board at imdb.com has a prison record and is known for bar fights) told us that right before charging out onto the sidewalk and slapping me several times, then knocking the camera from my hands that I was using to document what had just happened. One of the other two bouncers, the slim one with dreds (Cordell Lochin wannabe), charged out of the building onto the sidewalk and flicked a lit cigarette into our faces, then sneered, "That was an accident," before darting back inside to hide like a coward. All three of these men are violent, sadistic and dangerous. Why is owner Serge Becker hiring criminals? Chianese, Jr.'s alleged prison record is probably the reason he doesn't turn up on New York State's database as a licensed security guard; it's perhaps because he can't get a license).

We appreciate the coverage by animalnewyork.com, gothamist.com, gawker.com and pxthis.com because it's helping to alert the public about these criminals (and Chianese, Jr.'s alleged on-the-job drug habit) and it's helping to bring much needed witnesses to our site. To clarify gothamist.com's story, we were not trying to sneak a camera inside to get "secret photos" of their "secret room." We thought it was a Mexican restaurant, not a Masonic lodge; plenty of people were coming in and out the door to the bar so it wasn't much of a secret. The guy at the cash register even told us there was a bar downstairs, we asked him before we went. I almost always have a small camera with me when I go out, and did not pull it out until we were on the sidewalk.

As for Chianese, Jr.'s threat that "in the old days you would be dead," we can only assume he meant the good old days before a bouncer at The Falls did murder someone and the city passed the Bouncer Control Act.*
The crime my partner and I committed? Eating some Mexican food and drinking two diet sodas, then checking with a waiter (again we ask, then how is it a "secret bar?") and walking down a flight of steps through an untended to get a look at the bar before heading home.

Beware Dominic Chianese, Jr. We are trying to ascertain whether he and his
cohorts are licensed* security guards as the law requires.

They assaulted us inside the bar, then after dragging us onto the sidewalk they threatened repeated physical violence, to "kick our ass," to rape us, threw a lit cigarette in our faces, came out of the establishment to slap me repeatedly, then intentionally broke my camera. I asked one of the two bouncers, the bald black one (they like the Mussolini look at La Esquina), AS THEY DRAGGED ME UP THE FLIGHT OF STEPS BY MY WRISTS (and as I offered no resistance whatsoever) if he was a licensed* NYC bouncer, and he said, "Yeah I'm licensed, asshole," but then refused to provide his name or show me a copy of his license.

This man and his equally violent coworker--the supposed security staff-- then had the nerve to ask if we were "on something" for sticking around to photograph them from the sidewalk. As we replied - well, who's committed assault and battery? Who's resorted to threats of rape and additional assault? Who's throwing lit cigarettes into people's faces? Who's smacking people around? Who's breaking cameras? Who's hurling profanities? YOU. YOU ARE. And as it turns out they are the ones likely to be "on something" while at work. What did the police and La Esquina's co-owner/partner/social connector/drug smuggler Cordell Lochin do? Nothing. Read on...

ASSAULT, BATTERY, MENACING AND THE POLICE:

After breaking my camera they had the nerve to threaten to call the police for the crime of photographing them, which we implored them to do. Then a middle-aged Latino man pretending to be the "owner" came out, very calm, again said to us - if you don't stop taking pictures [from a public sidewalk] I'm going to have to call the police. I'm standing there still taking pictures of the criminals, I say - Sir, please call the police. If you don't, we will. We're not leaving until we speak to the police.

Meanwhile as I continued photographing the staff, a man whom we now know was Cordell Lochin accosted my sobbing girlfriend, asking her, "Why are you doing this? Is this what you people like to do on a Friday night, go and bother people where you're not wanted?"   This poor excuse for a man was actually upset that his victimized customers were ruining the evening for his staff of drug-addled thugs. We're bothering people? Dear god. Sadly this violence-loving, negligent coward who let an aging staff member pretend to be the owner so he could dodge taking responsibility had completely missed the point. Our question to Mr. Lochin is, why do his people enjoy assaulting, battering and menacing customers and why did he do nothing to stop them? It's clear from the many emails we've received and postings all over the Internet that we're not the only victims of Cordell Lochin and his people.   Although in fairness we did receive an email from one detractor who is much cooler than we are who wrote to put us in our uncool, egotistical place: "must have not been cool enough to be there in thefirst place and I know the guy [Chianese, Jr.] he is not a very bigguy or that violent you guys probably warrantedgetting kicked out of the place and your egos are sowounded you decided to do this internet bashingbecause if it were that serious in the first place youguys should have called the cops and not leave it upto them uh - duh." We urge her to conduct an experiment: have two friends pick her up, throw her onto a flight of steps spine first and drag her up them, then flick a lit cigarette into her face at close range. She might be a tad shaken.

It's not just us, this place has a pattern of assault and battery.

Also in fairness, kickboxing drug smuggler Lochin is described in an Observer article as a generous lover of humanity who helps the downtrodden [except for beaten-up men and weeping women].   One Observer posting about this desperate coward alleges that he once offered a couple dining at La Esquina $300 to let him have sex with them (they declined). We're surprised he didn't just ask Dominic to help him rape the couple like Dominic threatened to do to us. Words cannot describe this unspeakable piece of garbage and his La Esquina cohorts.

The cops soon came, no flashing lights, no siren, very calmly. Although they were very courteous to us, more like condescending, they were clearly on the side of the bouncers. We offered to take breathalyzer and any other sobriety tests but the officers declined, seeing that we were clearly not intoxicated and not posing a threat to anyone, and were standing on public property. But they also wouldn't take our names. They wouldn't assist us in filing criminal charges against the bouncers. It's as though they wanted no record that the incident had ever happened. Why? Who would that benefit?   Clearly it benefits the bouncers and the owner of the bar if we don't get to file criminal charges.    Polite as they were, they even refused to check to see whether these men were licensed* bouncers. They also would not assist in helping us ascertain these men's names. They were not interested in whether a crime had been committed. They kept insisting the physical attacks and threats we described were "not an assault" (literally, "They threw me down and dragged me up a flight of steps." Officer W: "That's not an assault.") and were merely a civil case (!?) if we wanted to pursue it. We told them we did want to pursue it and asked for their assistance in documenting things and getting names and they literally turned their backs on us, saying "Okay fine, you've taken your pictures, now go."   We obeyed them. If they took a statement from Chianese, Jr., Cordell Lochin, the pretend "owner" and the other two bouncers it was after we left, after they had gotten rid of us. We have filed complaints against the officers with the Civilian Complaint Review Board. They forwarded our complaint to NYPD's complaint division and as of summer '07 it's being investigated by a lieutenant at the 5th precinct. Perhaps this is related in some small way to their decision to raid the joint on 8/23/07. We hope so.

The legal definition of assault is, "A crime that occurs when one person tries to physically harm another in a way that makes the person under attack feel immediately threatened. Actual physical contact [although there was plenty of physical contact in our case] is not necessary; threatening gestures that would alarm any reasonable person can constitute an assault."

The legal definition of battery is, "A crime consisting of physical contact that is intended to harm someone." This would definitely be us.

The legal definition of third degree physical menacing in New York State is "intentionally placing or attempting to place another person in fear of death, imminent serious physical injury or physical injury." They are guilty.

For better or worse, we came straight home and posted this on the Internet. Are we seething mad? You bet we are. Are we taking legal action? You bet we are. This is not about pouting over the fact that we weren't allowed into a silly bar with a door policy. We weren't even sure we wanted to be there to begin with, and we didn't know it was a ludicrous "secret bar." We did not sense that there was a door policy and there was no one holding a guest list. There was no velvet rope. We did not push past anyone, we did not threaten or menace them or the customers in any way. We had already been welcomed into the establishment and informed by a friendly employee that there was a bar downstairs. We finished our meal, opened a door (that plenty of other customers were also coming and going through unescorted) and walked down a flight of steps. Period. We would have been gone in sixty seconds. This is about bouncers committing assault, battery and menacing with impunity.

BOYCOTT THIS SICK PLACE.
It's run by violent, twisted, self-important fools who are ruining the city.
We are pursuing legal action and notifying the public about this dangerous place. We have no other recourse, the police (and the owners) would not help us. Will they help you?

Do what you want but remember there are tons of cool people and tons of cool places, even ones with a velvet rope, to go to downtown. La Esquina isn't one of them. Give someone else your money, someone who's actually glad you came, not these jackasses. They do not care about you and they do not care about the neighborhood. They are dangerous, violent thugs. We fear for anyone who gets near these three particular guys we ran into this night.
WOMEN BEWARE. (Men, too.)

*In August '06 the New York City Council introduced the "Bouncer Bill" to illegalize the hiring of a bouncer who lacks a state-issued security guard license verifying that he has undergone a background check and has no criminal record. This was already illegal but only the understaffed State Liquor Authority had the power to enforce it. In November '06 the new law went into effect allowing the city, not just the State Liquor Authority, to shut down establishments that hire bouncers who have not undergone required background checks. Violations can be reported to NYPD, the Department of Consumer Affairs or the Department of Buildings. Clubs are also required now to keep a log of which bouncers are on duty each night. Want to find out whether a bouncer is a licensed security guard like the law requires? Go here.

Click here to read a letter from Council Speaker Christine Quinn and our reply.