Santo Domingo. – Businessman Antonio Espaillat, owner of the Jet Set nightclub whose roof collapsed in April causing the death of 236 people, has already paid the bail imposed as a coercive measure, his lawyer Miguel Valerio reported this Friday, so he is awaiting his release and that of his sister Maribel in the coming hours.
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The magistrate, who declared the case complex, imposed on the defendants an economic guarantee of 50 million pesos (about $850,000), a ban on leaving the country and periodic reporting, instead of the 18 months of pre-trial detention for Antonio Espaillat and house arrest for his sister that the Prosecution requested. After more than twelve hours of hearings that extended until the early hours of Thursday, the judge considered that the Espaillat brothers have sufficient roots (family, business activity, family…) not to escape the action of justice in the country. The Public Ministry announced that it will appeal the decision to dismiss preventive detention, considering that the court did not assess the damage caused to society by the death of 236 people and the injuries to more than 180 in an accident that occurred in the early hours of April 8 when the roof of the nightclub collapsed. At that moment, hundreds of people were in the club, where merengue singer Rubby Pérez, one of the fatalities, was performing. Dozens of legal actions have been filed by the families of the deceased and survivors of the tragedy at the popular Jet Set nightclub. According to the Public Prosecutor’s investigation, “for years” Jet Set “operated with systematic and serious negligence in the maintenance and structural adequacy of its facilities, putting the lives of its clients and employees at risk.” The Espaillat brothers allowed and managed the carrying out of important renovations, adaptations, and expansions in the establishment’s structure, “without obtaining the required permits or carrying out the necessary structural evaluations by the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC) or the City Hall” of the Dominican capital, according to the Prosecutor’s Office. Furthermore, “they overloaded the nightclub’s roof excessively and progressively, with multiple heavy elements, such as technical booths, ducts, large-volume air conditioning units (including six air conditioners of 15 and 20 tons each) and water tanks,” he stated.
