Dominican roof collapse: family seeks homicide charges against nightclub owners over safety
The widow and parents of victim Virgilio Cruz filed a complaint, claiming the owners of the Jet Set nightclub had been negligent in “safety design”
The family of one of 231 people killed when a Dominican nightclub roof collapsed on concertgoers is seeking manslaughter charges against the establishment’s owners, according to a legal filing on Tuesday.
The widow and parents of victim Virgilio Cruz filed a complaint with prosecutors, claiming the owners of the Jet Set nightclub had been negligent in “safety design” and modifications made to the building, now in ruins.
The family argued there was “sufficient evidentiary merit to indict” the club owners for involuntary manslaughter, and said they would also pursue a civil liability claim against authorities in the Dominican Republic.
“This tragedy is not only attributable to the owners and managers of the Jet Set nightclub … but also to Dominican state institutions” and the municipality, the filing said.
“They failed to fulfil their legal duties of supervision, inspection, and authorisation of operations for establishments open to the public.”
The roof of the club, a half-century-old mainstay of the capital Santo Domingo, came crashing down in the early hours of Tuesday last week on hundreds of people attending a concert by merengue star Rubby Perez, who also died in the Caribbean nation’s worst disaster in decades.