Niagara County Court jury deliberates on Falls speakeasy case

Rick Pfeiffer -, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·2 min read

May 14—LOCKPORT — A Niagara County Court jury is weighing the fate of a Niagara Falls man in a five-year-old weapons and drug case.

The jury began deliberations Monday morning in the case of Michael Brewer, 35, who faces multiple felony drug and weapons charges tied to his alleged operation of a shuttered downtown speakeasy.

An earlier trial was scuttled in November when Niagara County Judge John Ottaviano granted the mistrial request as jury selection was underway. At that time, defense attorneys for Brewer convinced Ottaviano to grant a mistrial after they asked for additional time to review "materials that had come to light after the start of jury selection."

Those materials reportedly involved weapons possession allegations against Brewer in an unrelated case.

Brewer was indicted by a Niagara County grand jury in October 2019 on three counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, single counts of third-degree criminal possession of marijuana, and third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, as well as four counts of misdemeanor drug possession following a raid by Falls Police Narcotics Intelligence Division (NID) detectives at a Niagara Avenue lounge that was serving alcohol without a liquor license.

Detectives said Brewer was the owner-operator of the lounge.

The police raid on the Imperial Paradise Lounge disrupted a popular "Ladies Night" party and came in response to complaints that the lounge was serving food without city or county permits and had been the scene of several fights and shootings. Detectives said they found three loaded handguns, nearly a pound of marijuana, almost six ounces of cocaine, a gram of fentanyl and a strip of the opioid medication Suboxone after searching the lounge.

Brewer has pleaded not guilty to all the charges he faces.

At the time of the raid, in April 2019, NID detectives said they had responded, during the prior 18 months, to three assault calls, three assault with a weapon calls and one report of "shots fired" at the unlicensed bar on the 900 block of Niagara Avenue. NID investigators said their confidential tip line had been flooded with complaint calls about the speakeasy.

One detective called the speakeasy a "pain in the (expletive)."

Investigators said Brewer, who has a prior federal felony conviction for firearms possession, would advertise his weekly parties on Facebook.