A San Francisco club where a man was fatally shot last month intends to defy its eviction notice from the Port of San Francisco, an attorney for the venue said today.
The lease for Jelly’s restaurant and dance cafi on Pier 50 expires Wednesday.
In the days following the July 11 killing of 39-year-old Richmond resident Lee Farley outside Jelly’s, the Port of San Francisco announced it would terminate the club’s lease effective Aug. 18.
“We are going to be fighting the termination and the eviction of the lease on multiple grounds,” Jelly’s attorney Whitney Leigh said today.
Leigh said the Port of San Francisco used Farley’s killing as a “pretext” to evict Jelly’s, which weeks earlier had informed port officials that the sewage system maintained by the port was faulty.
Port officials cited violence, noise and violations of the lease in its termination notice to Jelly’s.
Police have also called for the club’s closure. In 2008, another man was fatally shot during a fight outside Jelly’s, and police have reportedly been called to the venue several times for other incidents.
Leigh contended that the Port was well aware of how the club has been operating over its 16-year history and has never complained about it violating its lease.
The violent incidents “have been exaggerated and mis-described,” he added.
Though police have said that Farley and another male patron had some kind of interaction inside Jelly’s that spilled outside, Leigh maintained there was no evidence the violence originated inside the club.
Leigh called for police to release the official police report documenting the incident and called public statements made by police about the club to media outlets “irresponsible.”
Port spokeswoman Renee Dunn Martin confirmed today that the lease for Jelly’s will officially terminate at the close of business Wednesday.
Leigh said Jelly’s would remain open.
“Well then they’ll be open without a lease agreement with the port,” Martin said.
Both sides anticipate the issue will head to court.
Attorneys for the family of Lee Farley separately announced Monday that they intend to sue Jelly’s for “insufficient supervision and security.”
