The Biography of Chicago’s Marina City
House of Blues security scrutinized after ‘horrendous season’
2009-10
Since it opened in 1996, the 1,300-seat House of Blues at Marina City has hosted a show or other event almost every night, and a small army of security officers has arguably kept safe many thousands of people. But on October 12, 2009, Chicago police were called to HOB to protect a patron from a security officer.
Brittney Hernandez, a 23-year-old lighting designer in Chicago, was at House of Blues for a concert by the pop rock band Hanson, best known for its 1997 hit song, MMMBop.
“I was super excited because I was a really big fan growing up,” recalled Hernandez (left). “It was my first [Hanson] show that I got to see.”
At about 11:30 p.m., she took a photo of the driveway and that is what witnesses, police, and court documents agree provoked an HOB security officer, Darrell Gibson, to confront Hernandez, get into a verbal altercation, and then physically assault her.“We were sitting on a public sidewalk and a tour bus began to come up the driveway and she took a picture of the driveway to the alley,” said a witness, Anna Vaughn. “The guards were already pissed that we went by the buses and we were informed that [although] it is public property and we were not [trespassing] by going down there, [it was] a safety issue and we politely made our way to the sidewalk.”
(Photo) This driveway (photographed in November 2009), between the then-unfinished Museum of Broadcast Communications and Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse, leads to the marina level of Marina City and House of Blues, where tour buses load and unload.
After Hernandez photographed the driveway, Vaughn says Gibson “freaked.”
He ran about 20 feet up to Hernandez, told her to give him the camera, then, according to Hernandez, he “ripped it out of my hands.”
What happened next was captured on a smartphone belonging to Tiffany Bryant, a friend of Hernandez. The video showed Gibson striking Hernandez in the face. She then falls to the ground. Shortly after that, he strikes her again. She crumples to the ground once more and is motionless for several seconds. Another security officer in the video is heard on his radio asking that a detail officer named “Murph” be sent to the area. He tells the woman that a police officer is on his way.
Hernandez says Gibson did not tell her why he wanted to take her camera. She said Gibson ripped her hair, and that other HOB security officers saw the assault but did not try to stop it.
When police arrived, they spoke briefly with Hernandez and then arrested Gibson.
“I was really just in shock and didn’t say much,” she said. “All the witnesses pretty much spoke for me.”
She suffered minor injuries to her face. Gibson, age 31, from Sauk Village, south of Chicago, was charged with misdemeanor battery and released after posting a $1,000 bond.
House of Blues said in a statement, “We take our responsibility to maintain the safety of both our patrons and the artists who play at the House of Blues very seriously. We are looking into the incident and will cooperate fully with the authorities.”
Gibson pleads guilty, lawsuit is filed
On November 5, 2009, Darrell Gibson pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery. He was sentenced to a year of court supervision. He was ordered to undergo anger management counseling and perform five days of community service. The maximum penalty for a Class A Misdemeanor is one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Brittney Hernandez filed her lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court on December 3 against Gibson and House of Blues, seeking at least $100,000. Seven counts against Gibson included negligence, assault, battery, theft, and infliction of emotional distress. The ten counts against House of Blues included assault, battery, theft, negligent hiring and training, and statutory ordinance violations such as battery, theft, and failing to report the activity to police.
Her attorney, Stuart Brody, said the four-minute-15-second video was “critical” to his case.
“The picture speaks a thousand words,” he said. “We see every day incidents, whether it be criminal or otherwise, being captured on video that really level the playing field, so to speak, because it tells the story better than two people having to say, ‘he said, she said.’ This is one of those incidents.”
The lawsuit was important, says Hernandez, not just to her but to other concertgoers. “You want to feel safe when you’re at a venue or whenever you’re seeing a concert. Many parents...just drop [their children] off at the door and pick them up right afterwards. You would think that they’d be safe. They should be at ease knowing that their children are with people who are going to do their job correctly instead of rough them up for no reason.”
During the week of April 19, 2010, a settlement was reached but terms were not disclosed.
“We found the attorneys for House of Blues to be very cooperative,” said Brody about the Chicago law firm Swanson, Martin & Bell, “and we are pleased to have settled the case.”
Four violent incidents in 2009It was the year’s third violent incident involving House of Blues. On May 16, 2009, following a late-night rap concert at which multiple fights broke out, according to witnesses, a 21-year-old man was shot and injured. There were no arrests because, said a Chicago police spokesperson, the victim could not give a good description of the suspect.
On September 8, a shoving match between two women turned into a stabbing following a concert by rap artist Jay-Z. A 20-year-old man, who was the brother of one of the women, was stabbed, according to police, by the 32-year-old boyfriend of the other woman. The victim was treated and released at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
On July 20, a 22-year-old woman claimed she was taken to an isolated room at House of Blues, held against her will, then “battered about the face and body, placed in imminent fear of additional bodily harm, and intentionally subjected to other extreme and outrageous conduct” by Rikki Jones, a 27-year-old security officer, and other HOB employees.
Kristin Chopp sued for $50,000, claiming battery, false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress, and negligence. Statements by three security officers at House of Blues, however, described Chopp as “being very aggressive” at HOB’s Buddy Guy bar on the day of the incident. She was, said a manager, “intentionally disturbing guests by running into them numerous times.”
When she was asked to follow Jones to the back of the venue to talk, Chopp cursed at the security officer and tried to run back into the bar. She struck Jones in the face, said a security supervisor, and when he tried to separate the two, Chopp was cut above her nose in the scuffle.
That lawsuit, filed on October 8, 2009, was dismissed on December 22, 2011.
Changes made to security and local management
2009 was a “horrendous season” for House of Blues Chicago, in the words of 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly. On May 13, 2010, he met with Ryan Shea, the new general manager. Shea replaced Jim Jablonski, who had been GM since January 2009 and, before that, from 1999 to 2006.
Reilly called the meeting “very productive.” He had commitments from HOB, in writing, to increase security around the perimeter of the property, and manage more aggressively how the public enters and exits. There were 12 new managers, including Shea, and changes to security staff included new people and new training – a rigorous certification program Reilly described as “the best in the business.”
Along with Darrell Gibson, House of Blues fired most of its security staff and created a new human resources department to give applicants for security jobs a more rigorous background check.
What Reilly understood about the old hiring practices was that “it was basically word of mouth, like friend-of-a-friend hires. Their head of security was, like, hiring his buddies. A lot of them had a criminal history.”
“They had plenty of bodies,” says Reilly about HOB security, “but they weren’t professional and they weren’t handling it right.”
| Updated 2-Jun-17 |