Dominican justice ordered the arrest of siblings Antonio and Maribel Espaillat, owners of the Jet Set nightclub in the Dominican Republic, this Thursday.
According to the newspaper “Diario Libre”, both were placed under arrest after several hours of questioning by the head of the General Prosecution Directorate of the Public Ministry.
You can read: Youngest daughter of Rubby Pérez breaks the silence about the collapse at Jet Set and demands justice.
The Public Ministry alleged that the owners of the nightclub showed “immense irresponsibility and negligence” by failing to carry out a physical intervention that would have prevented the collapse of the entertainment center’s roof.
The arrest warrant explains that both suspects committed involuntary manslaughter, in accordance with Article 319 of the Dominican Penal Code.
The nightclub’s ceiling collapsed during the early hours of April 8, leaving a total of 234 victims, as confirmed by Dominican authorities.
In the tragedy, Rubby Pérez, singer and composer; Nelsy Cruz, governor of the northwestern province of Montecristi and sister of Nelson Cruz, seven-time Major League Baseball star; Octavio Dotel, former baseball player; Martín Polanco, fashion designer; Eduardo Guarionex and his wife Alexandra Grullón, among others, also passed away.
The Minister of Public Health said that there was a delay in identifying the victims because most of them had to be identified using biometric data.
On April 23rd, the owner of the nightclub stated that the structure had gypsum ceiling tiles that were constantly being replaced because they would fall for various reasons.
The businessman expressed in an interview with journalist Edith Febles from the local channel TeleSistema 11 that the plaster ceilings were falling due to the water from the air conditioners: "The plaster ceilings absorb all the water, the plaster becomes heavy and falls“.
Espaillat also indicated that the building had leakage problems since it was acquired in the 80s and that the roof had never been structurally inspected.
What could have caused the collapse of the roof at Jet Set?
The structural engineering doctor and Puerto Rican politician, Carlos Ignacio Pesquera, explained the reasons that could have caused the collapse of the Jet Set nightclub roof.
“(The space) was first used as a theater, a cinema, and then was modified as a discotheque or event venue. This type of facility requires spacious areas, without columns, because it doesn’t make sense to dance among columns and it provides better visibility and better use of the space. This is what causes you to have a structure that will be around 55 feet wide in the part that was within the dance area, so to speak, and 90 feet long. This creates a quite significant distance, the 55 feet, for a column-free structure,” Pesquera explained on Metro al Mediodía.
He continued: “The structural system that was apparently used there, basically was a roof resting on a system of walls around the perimeter of the structure, and that type of structural system has no redundancy. What does it mean that it has no redundancy? It means that if it starts to fail, then it is a catastrophic progressive failure, like what was seen there. About 15 or 20 seconds passed, during which people realized that pieces of cement, concrete were falling, until it collapsed completely.”
The former gubernatorial candidate for the New Progressive Party (PNP) also highlighted that weight was added to the roof with air conditioning and lighting system.
“It has been mentioned that there were even power plants (on the surface),” he stated.
He detailed that the structure was “compromised”, with a lack of maintenance and a weight greater than what was contemplated in the original design.
“Unfortunately, it can be inferred that there was a greater intention to take advantage economically of the ease than to make significant changes from the point of view of the building’s resistance to the new loads being applied,” he stated.