Hundreds of revelers desperate for a taste of New Year’s Eve normality were rounded up overnight for attending illegal parties in violation of COVID-19’s pandemic restrictions, the New York City sheriff said Friday.
While Times Square was a ghost town, parties rang out from Queens to Manhattan, including a Maspeth karaoke bash with more than 300 maskless revelers, Sheriff Joseph Fucito said.
At 2 a.m. on New Year’s Day, delegates responded at the Maspeth Bar Lounge on 58th Street and watched as more than 25 people slid into a side emergency exit that was locked from the outside, Fucito said.
About 15 minutes later, deputies stormed in to find more than 300 people together “drinking alcohol, singing karaoke and dancing” without a face covering, the sheriff said.
The owner of the company, Man Phan, 37, along with his wife He Bin Wang, 37, was charged with violating an executive order, violation of an emergency measure and for failing to protect health and safety. Phan was also charged with running a bottle club without a license, illegally storing alcohol and obstructing an exit and will be fined $ 15,000.
Guowei Lin, 44, the shindig’s DJ, was also facing charges and a $ 1,000 fine, along with Fang Zou, a 35-year-old employee, Fucito said.
In Brooklyn, delegates received “numerous” 311 complaints about a large, loud gathering with no social distance at Stars Hall in Sunset Park.
When officers arrived just before midnight, they found about 80 people dancing away their 2020 blues and smoking hookah, Fucito said.
The party’s organizer, Al Zabidi, was given two tickets for violating an emergency measure and an executive order and is facing a $ 15,000 fine.
In Manhattan, the sheriff’s agents found another illegal party in an event space at a loft on Prince Street around 1 a.m. Friday, Fucito said.
On the sixth floor, delegates found 145 people “dancing, drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes” while not wearing masks or socially distancing themselves, Fucito said.
The party’s organizers were fined $ 1,000. The promoter will have to pay $ 15,000.