Queens, NY- A stable of young prostitutes worked out of the seedy strip club at the center of the controversial police shooting – posing as barmaids and routinely offering patrons more than a cold drink, law enforcement sources said yesterday.
The illicit sex trade was so lucrative that the hookers – some as young as 13 – paid bouncers for the right to work at the Kalua Cabaret, then plied men with alcohol before closing the deals, the sources said.
It was the underground sex trade – not the threat of gun violence – that led the NYPD’s special club enforcement unit to target the club before Sean Bell, 23, was killed in a fusillade of 50 police bullets early Saturday.
“We had done a lot of work on the Chelsea clubs,” a high-ranking police source said. “We were looking to expand to Queens, and Kalua was at the top of the list.”
A police source said an undercover cop was close to making a prostitution arrest at the club in Jamaica before the explosion of gunfire.
Prostitution at the club dates back at least two years and includes February’s arrest of Troy Siddons, a 20-year-old Bloods gang member who allegedly ran hookers from the club, authorities said.
Siddons trolled halfway houses for vulnerable young girls, telling them he loved them, authorities said.
“Daddy needs some cash,” Siddons allegedly told them before taking them to Kalua and showing them off to men, often 20 years their senior, a law enforcement source said.
Siddons was arrested outside Kalua and charged with kidnapping and promoting prostitution. If convicted, the ex-con faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
About the same time as Siddons’ arrest, the NYPD brought a nuisance abatement case against the club in a bid to shut it down. Police charged that underage patrons had been repeatedly served liquor.
In March, Queens vice cops made two prostitution arrests at the 94th Ave. nightspot, police said.
A judge had ordered the club closed in July 2005, but it was allowed to reopen two months later after the owners agreed to eliminate small rooms that allegedly had been used for prostitution and to keep hookers from coming inside, police said.
A source said most of the prostitutes wore skimpy outfits, while a few walked around topless. The savvier hookers hit up patrons who were drinking heavily, in the belief that they couldn’t be undercover cops if they were getting plastered, the source said.
“She helps the guy get drunk, and the bartender splits the tips with her,” the source said. “But the big payoff comes in prostitution.”
In recent months, the prostitutes would leave the club with men and have sex off the premises, the sources said.
“It could be in a car, down the street or in a flop house,” a source said. “I never heard of it happening inside the club.”
The club owner, Roger Duran, 33, and his lawyer, Charles Carreras, could not be reached for comment. No criminal charges have been filed against the owner.
Kalua opened in 2003 and was initially supposed to be a restaurant, according to its landlord, Juan Escobar.
The State Liquor Authority has been reviewing a series of complaints against the club, including allegations that it hired a convicted felon and allowed someone to bring a weapon inside.
Sanctions by the SLA board could include a license revocation, fines up to $10,000 per violation or a suspension of the license. A ruling is expected Dec. 20.