Settlement in HOB security lawsuit

By Steven Dahlman

March 14, 2012 – No one is offering any details, but a settlement was reached late last year in a 2009 lawsuit over an incident at House of Blues involving a security officer.

Filed on October 8, 2009, the lawsuit accused Rikki Jones, at the time a 27-year-old security officer at HOB, of assaulting a patron in July of that year. Kristin Chopp, age 22, claimed that on July 20, 2009, she was taken to an isolated room, 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 Jones and other HOB employees. She sued for $50,000, claiming battery, false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress, and negligence.

According to court documents, the case was dismissed “by stipulation or agreement” on December 22, 2011. Also noted, “voluntary mediation was not utilized in reaching this settlement.”

Neither attorney, Robert J. Meyer for House of Blues or Daniel Galivan for Kristin Chopp, would confirm or deny the settlement. Reached on Monday, a manager for Live Nation, the company that owns House of Blues, said, “All I can tell you is that the case has been resolved.”

Chopp was disturbing guests, say security officers

Statements by three security officers at House of Blues described Chopp as “being very aggressive” at the “Buddy Guy” bar on the day of the incident. Chopp, according to director of operations Joseph Gaspary Jr., was “intentionally disturbing guests by running into them numerous times.”

Jones says when he asked Chopp to follow him to the back of the venue to talk, “she immediately begins to curse at me and was being very aggressive toward me. I told her if she calmed down I would let her back into the show, but she continued to curse at me and then she tried to run back out into the club.”

Another employee, Selvin Jones, security supervisor at HOB since 2004, says Chopp was “swearing and arguing” with Rikki Jones and that she hit Rikki on the right side of his face with her hand. Selvin tried to separate the two and told Rikki to walk away, hoping to diffuse the situation. But in the scuffle, Chopp was cut above her nose.

Security personnel say they repeatedly offered to seek medical attention for Chopp but she refused each time. It was only when Chopp’s mother arrived on the scene did she insist that an ambulance be called. Chopp was then taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Rikki Jones said he wanted charges filed against Chopp but police officers responding to the incident consulted with a sergeant and decided not to.

In April 2010, a settlement was reached in another lawsuit involving a former security officer at House of Blues. Darrel Gibson was captured on cell phone video assaulting 23-year-old Brittney Hernandez on October 12. Gibson plead guilty to misdemeanor battery and was sentenced to a year of court supervision and anger management counseling. Hernandez had been seeking at least $100,000. Terms of that settlement were not disclosed.