SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A Scranton restaurant has been temporarily shut down after the Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office asked a judge to declare the business a nuisance and close it permanently.<\/p>\n
District Attorney Brian Gallagher said he filed a Petition for Special Relief against Isla Paraiso Restaurant at 1001 South Main Avenue following what he described as repeated public safety problems associated with the establishment.<\/p>\n
A Lackawanna County judge granted a temporary stay Monday ordering Isla Paraiso to cease all operations while the case is pending.<\/p>\n
According to the court order, the case names Paraiso Caribeno Corp., doing business as Isla Paraiso Restaurant, along with Nicholas Tsioles, Cynthia Tsioles and Franchesca N. Espinal Franco as respondents.<\/p>\n
Gallagher said the petition follows multiple reported incidents connected to the establishment, including a gun being fired this past weekend and an earlier incident in which a bullet struck a neighborhood home.<\/p>\n
The district attorney alleges the business operates as a restaurant during the day but becomes an after-hours nightclub that can remain open until 2, 3 or 4 a.m.<\/p>\n
Gallagher further alleges alcohol sales, loud music, drugs and illegal firearms associated with the late-night activity have created problems for the surrounding neighborhood.<\/p>\n
“I will not wait for a tragedy to occur or for something horrible to happen before we take action,” Gallagher said.<\/p>\n
The court order requires the business to remain closed and prohibits operations by any establishment under any name at the South Main Avenue address while the matter is pending.<\/p>\n
A notice posted at the property also warns that anyone entering or remaining on the premises could face criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n
The restaurant and other respondents have been ordered to show why the relief requested by the district attorney should not be granted.<\/p>\n
A hearing, if necessary, is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Thursday, September 3, in Courtroom 5 of the Lackawanna County Courthouse.<\/p>\n
Gallagher said his office is working with Lackawanna County Detectives on the case and intends to seek the restaurant’s permanent closure.<\/p>\n
“We look forward to shutting it down permanently,” Gallagher said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A Scranton restaurant has been temporarily shut down after the Lackawanna County District…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-277304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}