CURTIS CAMPBELL, STAR Writer

Children wait in line to play in the bouceabout at the Vassell’s Christmas Treat held at Pier One, Montego Bay, St James, back in 2009. – File

The owner of popular entertainment venue Pier 1 in Montego Bay, St James, has dispelled allegations that the venue was sold to an anonymous Caucasian buyer. According businessman and owner of the venue, Jason Russell, the allegations are baseless.

“I have heard just like everybody else that a white man came with papers to claim Pier 1, but I haven’t seen any white man and I am here every day,” he said.

Russell revealed that he was told that the rumour started via Blackberry broadcasts, and the source of the rumour is yet to be traced.

“I did not have no service on my Blackberry at the time so a people call mi and a tell mi. I don’t know where it started from and who is behind it, I was just told that it was being broadcast on BBM. As far as I can attest, no white man came here and no police came here to investigate nothing,” he said.

Russell expressed that there was no interest to sell the venue, and for the Pier 1 management team, it was business as usual.

“It is amazing to see how something that has no fact can spread so fast. I don’t know if this was a prank on me, all I know is what I heard … people are saying it was a scam, but I haven’t seen no white man, for us it is business as usual,” he said.

The businessman also rubbished further allegations that local police officers seized the venue since the rumours began to spread.

“They say police seized the premises, and I want to state that it’s false. I haven’t even reported the matter because I don’t have anything to report. A police officer asked me about the rumour once and that was it,” he said.

Russell also disclosed that business was not affected by the rumour, adding that any publicity in entertainment is good publicity.

“Everybody has been talking about Pier 1 for the past week or so since the rumour. I have not noted any negative impact in sales, it’s the same business … a man scamming, a white man is doing nothing to harm business for me,” he said.

The businessman was not quick to rule out the possibility of a plot by others to defame his business, and he laments that it’s not wise to believe everything others say.

“I am not going to rule out competitors, anything is possible in this business. The lesson from this story is that people should not believe everything that they hear, trust me, I learnt from this experience,” he said.

The next major event scheduled for Pier 1 is World Clash on April 9, 2012, featuring local and international sound systems.

*************NOW MI NEVA KNOW SEH STAR CAN DO INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING? YESSIDEH WHEN DEM PUT INA DEM FRONT PAGE HOW CLUB OWNER’S WIFE BEAT’S EMPLOYEES AND ALL QUOTE POLICE BOUT POLICE A GO MEK ARREST TODEH …WITHOUT SPEAKING TO THE POLICE FI POLICE TELL DEM SEH NO EMPLOYEE WAS BEATEN, TWO YOUNG LADIES ENGAGED IN A FIGHT AND BOTH FILED REPORTS…THERE WAS A DISCREPANCY WITH A PATRON WHERE DRINK WAS SPILLED AND A FIGHT ENSUED FROM THERE WITH TWO LADIES…WHO BOTH SUSTAINED INJURIES..DEM GO AS FAR AS FI SEH DESIGNATED ROOM DID DEH DEH…DEM NUH CUDDA CALL DI BIG BIG SOCIALITE DARREN VIRTUE AND QUESTION HIM OR CALL DI CLUB ITSELF…YET DEM PUT PAN BIG FRONT PAGE HOW EMPLOYEES GET BEATEN WITHOUT CONFIRMATION BUT DEM FIND DEM WAY A PIERE 1 FI CONFIRM STORY DOE? STRUPS************************

OUCH

MET DIS GAL A WALK AND (Edited) DI PLACE AND A TRICK DEH DECENT BOY YAH BOUT SHE LOVE HIM, MET LAST WEEK SPYCE TELL ME AND COUPLE MORE A HER FRIENDS DEM BOUT SHE NO REALLY WANT HIM A JUST HIM MONEY AND SHE JUST A PLAY WITH HIM HEAD, ME SAY A WANT A GOOD GAL TEK HIM WAY FROM HER U SEE MAN!!! SPYCE MISS LOWLIFE BOUT U NAME GOODLIFE GO FIND SOMETHING DO WITH U SELF UNIMPRESSIVE BITCH, U TRY SO HARD FI ATTENTION WELL HERE IT IS U SUCK PUSSY BATTY AND LIKE CLIT LIKE DOG,U NEED FI STOP HYPE UP PON DI MAN FB PAGE CAUSE IT NO LOOK GOOD AND ME ALWAYS A TELL U, THATS WHY U VEX WITH ME, U CLAIM A UR MAN SO WHY A TRY PROVE ON PEOPLE, WE NO WANT U NO MORE IN GOODLIFE FAMILY CAUSE U ONLY PUT OUR NAME TO SHAME,DUTTY BITCH U KNOW ME VERY WELL AND U KNOW A WHO SO BITCH ANYTIME U READY LET ME KNOW, ME AGO TELL DI MAN BOUT U NASTY BLOODCLAT AND U NEED FI STOP USE PEOPLE BOY PICKNEY BITCH !!!

Gay cruise: John Hart, 41, left, and Dennis Jay Mayer, 43, both of Palm Springs, California,
pleaded guilty to indecent exposure after they were caught having sex
Men were spotted having sex on Celebrity Summit from dock in Dominica, where sex between two men is illegal
Claimed the Dominican police taunted and humiliated them, to the point they were frightened for their safety
Ordered to pay $900 fine after pleading guilty to indecent exposure
Said they will never go back to Dominica and that they should have done more research before going
A Southern Californian man thrown off a Caribbean gay cruise earlier this week has said that that he and his partner were taunted, humiliated and subjected to inhumane treatment when they were arrested for indecent exposure.
Dennis Jay Mayer, 53, of Palm Springs said he has no doubt they were arrested in Dominica because they were gay.
Police said it was because they were seen having sex in public on the balcony of their ship cabin. Mayer said they were not having sex, but were ‘partially clothed’.

‘The total experience was horrendous,’ he said. ‘They told us that they did not like us, that they did not like gay people.’
Mayer, a retired deputy sheriff, told how he and his partner of 17 years, John Robert Hart, 41, were summoned to speak to the captain wished to speak to us. ‘We were caught off guard,’ he added.
Three cruise ship officials and six Dominica police officers were waiting for them. After police interviewed both men separately, the assistant captain spoke, Mayer said.
‘At this time, we are going to eject you from the ship. We have zero tolerance toward your behavior,’ Mayer recalled him saying.
Police drove them to their headquarters, where they sat on a bench for nearly two hours without legal representation despite repeated requests, Mayer said.
After police took pictures and obtained fingerprints, a high-ranking officer began a nearly four-hour interrogation. ‘He said: “You’re being arrested for being gay. We’re arresting you for the crime of buggery”,’ Mayer said.
‘He said that other people said that we were engaging in homosexual sex. He repeated that several times. I told him I didn’t know why they would say that. I wasn’t doing that.’

Mayer, 43, second from left, and Hart, 41, third from left, are escorted by police officers back to court following their arrest during a stop on a gay cruise of the Caribbean
During the interrogation, the police official threatened to take them to a clinic and have them medically examined for proof of homosexual activity, Mayer said.
‘He said, you know, we’re looking for specific things, fluids, bruising, things of that nature,’ Mayer said.
After making the threat, the official left the room, then came back saying they had a right to refuse the test, Mayer said.
The two men were charged with indecent exposure and put in a five-by-eight-foot cell to await an appearance before a magistrate.
‘The treatment was inhumane,’ Mayer said. ‘We were detained for approximately 26 hours, and 19 of those locked in a cement cell, which had no running water, no toilet, no lights. ‘It stunk of feces and urine. It was infested with cockroaches, ants and bugs.’
Mayer said police brought in government officials to look at them. ‘They paraded many people by to look in on us as if we were some type of animal, which was quite humiliating,’ he said. ‘People got great joy in the pleasure of taunting us.’
On Thursday morning, police drove them to the courthouse in the capital of Roseau, passing through an angry crowd, Mayer said.
‘They were chanting and banging on the police vehicle. They were screaming things,’ he said.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, other than in movies. Both my partner and I really feared for our safety.’

Arrest: Two men on board a gay cruise of the Caribbean were arrested yesterday in Dominica, after being spotted having sex on the Celebrity cruise ship, pictured, from the port of Roseau
Police drove around the block twice to avoid the crowd and journalists. Officers formed a barricade with their bodies and urged Mayer and his partner to run into the courthouse and not stop. ‘It was very frightening,’ Mayer said.
Once in the courtroom, Chief Magistrate Evaline Baptiste ordered the men to pay a nearly $900 fine after they pleaded guilty to indecent exposure. He called the two men ‘rogues and vagabonds’.
Police then drove them to the airport, Mayer said. He added he would never return to Dominica. ‘I would not spend my money in a country that does not support gay behavior,’ he said. ‘Shame on us for not doing our research.’
The two initially were arrested on suspicion of the local equivalent of sodomy in the eastern Caribbean island, which prohibits sex between two men.
The couple’s attorney, Bernadette Lambert, said they were remorseful.
‘They were struck by the beautiful mountains, the clean and clear fresh air and were having a few cocktails, and so threw caution to the wind,’ she told the court.

Party boat: The cruise was organized by Atlantis Events, a Southern California company that specializes in gay travel. The ship departed for St. Barts without the men, who are being held in a cell at police headquarters in the capital of Roseau
The two were aboard the Celebrity Summit cruise ship that had departed Puerto Rico on Saturday with about 2,000 passengers. The ship departed for St Barts late Wednesday, leaving the men behind.
The cruise was organized by Atlantis Events, a Southern California company that specializes in gay travel.
President Rich Campbell said Thursday that the outcome of the case would have been the same had it involved a heterosexual couple instead of two gay men.
‘It had nothing to do with their sexual orientation and everything to do with their public conduct,’ he said. ‘I have been in contact with the guests and they are in good spirits.’
Dozens of islanders packed the courtroom in the capital of Roseau to attend the 30-minute hearing.
Dominica Tourism Minister Ian Douglas said that tourists should abide by local laws regardless of their religious or sexual orientation, and that cruise ship officials should make passengers aware of these laws.
‘It cannot be the responsibility of Dominica to screen guests and tourists before they come into the country,’ he said. ‘It is expected that any time people come to a country, they will respect the laws of the country.’

Statement: President Rich Campbell, pictured, who is aboard the cruise, said ‘The guests’ actions were unfortunate but minor in this case and have no bearing on our overall guest experience’
Gay Caribbean cruises have been popular for several years despite hostility to homosexuality on certain islands, especially in Jamaica, Barbados and the Cayman Islands.
Campbell said in a phone interview earlier that the company has organized many trips to Dominica and would ‘happily return’.
‘Many countries and municipalities that gay men visit and live in have antiquated laws on their books,’ he said.
‘These statutes don’t pose a concern to us in planning a tourist visit.’
‘The guests’ actions were unfortunate but minor in this case and have no bearing on our overall guest experience,’ he said via email.
The pastor of Dominica’s Trinity Baptist Church, Randy Rodney, praised the police for their intervention.
‘I am very pleased that the police were called in and have arrested the people in question. I have warned about gay tourism and its implications for Dominica,’ said Mr Rodney, who is a vocal critic of homosexuality and lesbianism.
According to Cruisemates.com, no gay cruise lines sail to Jamaica or Barbados for fear of homophobia and possible violence.
It said other places like the U.S. Virgin Islands welcome gay cruises.
In 2010, the Cayman Islands rejected the arrival of an Atlantis gay cruise amid protests from religious groups even though homosexuality is legal on the archipelago.
Don Weiner, a spokesman for Atlantic Events, referred all questions to Campbell, including why the company organized a trip to Dominica and whether it knew about the island’s anti-sodomy laws.
Elizabeth Jakeway, a spokeswoman for Celebrity Cruises, referred all questions to Atlantis.
The last time authorities in the Caribbean intervened on a gay cruise was in February 2011, when agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested a California man aboard the Allure of the Seas, which had docked in St. Thomas.
The man, Steven Barry Krumholz of West Hollywood, pleaded guilty to selling ecstasy, methamphetamine and ketamine to fellow passengers.

CAN SMADDY CONFIRM?? DEM SEH MATIE AND WIFE BUCK UP A MONTIFIORIE HOSPITAL SINCE WEEK…DI TWO A DEM GO IN DI FI GENITAL WARTS OUT BREAK…PEOPLE DEM SEH DEM REGULAR INA DANCE..ANYBADDIE KNOW A WHO?