Legacy owners ask judge to reopen Norfolk nightclub, citing ‘irreparable’ financial harm after closure

Warren Salvodon and Alex Stokes had been friends for more than 20 years when they decided to open a nightclub downtown.

The two met in elementary school. After high school, each served in the U.S. military for more than a decade. When they returned to Hampton Roads, they hatched a plan to open the type of club they thought was missing from the city’s nightlife district.

Salvodon and Stokes, both 35, emptied their saving accounts and took out roughly $300,000 in loans to outfit a former restaurant space with a full bar, couches, a DJ booth and a sound system. They went through a lengthy permitting process and, on July 15, opened Legacy Restaurant and Lounge on Plume Street.

The dream was short-lived.

Three weeks later, a patron shot four people outside the club after getting into a scuffle inside. And just over a month later, the Norfolk City Council closed Legacy after city staff asserted its owners didn’t provide uniformed security on the night of the shooting — a violation of its permit.

That left Salvodon and Stokes with a shuttered club and nearly $275,000 in debt.

“We have nothing left,” Salvodon told a Norfolk Circuit Court judge this week.

Salvodon and Stokes appealed the council’s decision two weeks ago. They got their day in court Wednesday, asking a judge to issue an injunction allowing the nightclub to immediately reopen, citing “irreparable” financial harm. Their attorney presented evidence and testimony disputing the city’s contention that no security officers were in the club that night.

The judge said he’d decide on the injunction within a couple weeks, with his ruling on the appeal coming after that.

Salvodon testified that Legacy’s rent is $5,785, and its monthly debt payments total more than $7,000. He said he doesn’t know how much longer he can keep paying them.

Legacy’s attorney, Tim Anderson, a state delegate from Virginia Beach, contended the council’s “unlawful” closure of the club was based on false information.

Anderson presented video and eyewitness evidence indicating that uniformed security officers were present the night of the shooting. He showed a video, posted to social media that night that appears to show a security guard in uniform inside the nightclub.

Raymar Webb, chief operating officer of Civil Kings S.O.S., the security firm contracted by Legacy, testified that four uniformed security guards were present that night.

New details also emerged during the hearing about the series of events that unfolded before the shooting — and about the alleged shooter, Tyshawn Gray.

Norfolk police officers and sheriff’s deputies already were present outside Legacy when the shooting occurred, addressing a separate incident involving a disorderly patron, Salvodon said.

Gray, 25, was involved in a scuffle inside the club as the police and security guards were addressing the first incident outside, Salvodon said.

When the incident involving Gray began, a Legacy manager put him in a chokehold, dragged him across the floor and escorted him from the club. Salvodon said he told Gray, who’d quickly become a regular at the club, that he was banned from returning.

Gray then returned to his car at the corner of the street, retrieved a gun and began firing “from about 60 feet away,” Salvodon said.

After Anderson presented Legacy’s argument, Deputy City Attorney Adam Melita said the council’s decision to close the establishment was lawful and “in the public interest.”

Both attorneys then answered questions from Circuit Court Chief Judge David Lannetti, who said he would decide within two weeks whether Legacy can reopen until the court can rule on its appeal.

Legacy is one of three clubs that shut down since city officials announced it would ramp up code enforcement in response to rising crime in the area. The city closed Culture Restaurant & Lounge on Sept. 2, and City Council voted to close Scotty Quixx on Sept. 27.

The City Council will decide Tuesday whether to shutter another nightclub, California Burrito on Granby Street.

The incident at Legacy is one of three recent high-profile shootings downtown.

An April shooting at MacArthur Center mall left one dead and two injured. A shooting in March outside Chicho’s Backstage left one person injured and three dead, including a Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press reporter.

Daniel Berti, daniel.berti@virginiamedia.com