LAS VEGAS — Don't be fooled by police reports or a bar tab featuring several $600 bottles of Patron tequila; Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones wasn't such a high roller the night he and his entourage allegedly ignited a brawl in a Las Vegas strip club that ended in the shooting of three people, the club owner says.
Rob Susnar, co-owner of the new Minxx Gentlemen's Club and Lounge, Monday questioned initial police reports that put $81,000 — supposedly used by Jones to shower 40 strippers in a practice known as "making it rain" — in the hands of the troubled football player about 5 a.m. Feb. 19. Club employees changed $3,500 into singles for the sports star, said Susnar, who was not there himself.
The $81,000 that police recovered from the hotel room of the Houston club promoter who organized a four-day party at Minxx contained cash that Jones and other celebrities threw on stage and money that the promoter collected at the door from the $100 cover charge, Susnar said.
Susnar said he didn't want to see Jones, a man he says he hates and blames for the paralyzing of one of his newest bouncers and the potential collapse of his new business, claim tens of thousands of dollars that don't belong to the player.
The recovered money was stored in a safe in promoter Chris Mitchell's room at the Silverton Hotel and Casino, according to a police search warrant that says it is "in all probability, the money from Adam 'Pacman' Jones' plastic bag."
An eyewitness and club employee, who asked not to be named out of fear for his safety, said he saw Jones before the brawl reaching into a black, plastic trash bag and throwing fistfuls of bills into the air while the player danced on stage with the strippers. He didn't know how much was in the bag.
Meanwhile, rapper Nelly and producer Jermaine Dupri, who left once the fight broke out, displayed their money in blocks of $1,000, peeling off bills and tossing them over the dancers, the employee said.
Susnar estimated that the music celebrities threw about $10,000 in bills.
A spokesman for the Las Vegas Metro Police Department would not comment on the origins of the money found in Mitchell's hotel room.
"We're done talking about it," Bill Cassel said. "The investigation is continuing. We will not release any more information at this point."
Late Sunday afternoon, the police officers circling the stage and examining Minxx's back entrance — the door through which some say Jones and his crew left — outnumbered patrons at the small 24-hour club. One bikini-clad exotic dancer, the first to arrive in an hour, showed up and sat in one of the lounge's plush armchairs. The bartender was reading a book by flashlight. Neither knew exactly what happened early Feb. 19.
People here are afraid. The dancers, when not too scared to work, whispered in the bathroom about the night "things got crazy." There's a rumor circulating that a shady character was wandering the halls of the local hospital looking for the room of bouncer and paralyzed shooting victim Tom Urbanski. Several people contacted for this story refused to talk, even off the record, citing the death threats that Jones allegedly issued.
The Sunday lull stood in stark contrast to the previous Sunday, when, club employees say, up to 600 basketball followers packed into the small club's booths and around the two-pole stage drinking and watching shipped-in strippers dance to hard-core rap and hip-hop.
It was the last night of a weeklong party for the NBA All-Star game that attracted tens of thousands to the desert playground.
Jones and his mostly male crew — estimates vary between six and 20 "hangers-on" — sat for several hours in a corner booth near the DJ stand drinking Dom Perignon from the bottle and Patron, the employee said.
Minxx is a small club, with a neon bar along one end and a bank of swank private booths separated from the main floor by gossamer curtains on the other. Along a side wall are a set of less prestigious booths, one of which Jones occupied.
Susnar and the employee painted the football star as a lesser celebrity trying to get in on Nelly and Dupri's show.
Dupri arranged the showering of bills with the DJ, who stopped the music and called all strippers to the stage, the employee said. The DJ laid out the game plan: Strippers, who paid more than $300 apiece to be at the club, should not pick up the bills until the stars were finished throwing money at them, the employee said.
"The DJ was yelling at the girls, 'Don't pick up the money. Don't pick up the money. ... If you pick up the money, you might as well pick up your (stuff) and go home,' " he said.
Nelly and Dupri showered the strippers for a few songs. Then Jones got in on the deal for another 10 or 15 minutes, the witness said. Trouble started when one of the dancers apparently stooped to pick up some of the money covering the neon-lighted dance floor.
The witness heard a scuffle break out, but with everyone on their feet watching, he didn't have a clear picture of the altercation, he said. At one point, a black wig flew up into the air.
"That's how I knew it was two girls fighting," he said. "I've been doing this a long time ... and this was by far the craziest thing I've ever seen."
Susnar said other employees told him that Jones grabbed a dancer by the hair and punched her in the head. One bouncer, Aaron Cudworth, stepped in to restrain Jones, some in the football player's entourage joined the melee, and other patrons rushed the stage in a frenzy to grab the piles of cash, Susnar said.
Video of the incident is not high-quality, but you can still identify the people involved if you already know who they are, Susnar said. The Las Vegas police department asked Susnar not to release the tape, he added.
At one point, Cudworth put Jones in a "submission hold," said Susnar, making a headlock-type motion with his arms.
That's when, Susnar alleges, Jones told the bouncer, "You're going to die tonight. I'm going to smoke you."
Susnar said one of the men forced out of the club with Jones returned later that night and shot Cudworth, Urbanski and a female patron, who were standing at the front door.
Jones' lawyers said the shooter was not acquainted with the Titans cornerback. The police have not named Jones as a suspect or a person of interest.
Jones' lead attorney, Manny Arora, of Atlanta, could not be reached for comment Monday. A member of his office staff said he was in federal court on an unrelated matter.
Jones has faced criminal charges in three incidents involving Tennessee nightclubs since the Titans made him the sixth overall choice in the 2005 NFL draft, according to The Associated Press.
The blood that covered the front entrance of Minxx was gone Monday, when Susnar retraced the path of bullets that shattered a smoked glass window pane, dented a metal fixture and left pockmarks in the club's stucco exterior.
Those bullets may have ended Susnar's run as a strip club owner once profit losses and potential lawsuits are tallied, he said.
Those bullets also left a man paralyzed. The strip club community has posted donation jars, and Minxx will donate Wednesday's bar proceeds to benefit Urbanski and Cudworth.
"It's depressing. It's so depressing," Susnar said. "It was Pacman's fault."
