A woman died at a Queens bar that has had previous run-ins with the law.
The New York Post reports that employees discovered the woman to be unresponsive and unconscious inside the Cinderella Lounge at around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. The workers drove her to Flushing Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead at around 4:20 a.m.
The woman hasn’t yet been identified, but reportedly appeared to be 20 to 30 years old. Police have launched an investigation into her death, which they say might have been the result of an overdose. There was no other indication of trauma to her body. A medical examiner is determining the cause of death.
The bar has a sketchy past. In 2015, when it was a karaoke bar called Club JJNY, it was part of a corruption scandal linked to the NYPD’s 109th Precinct. Two police officers, Lt. Robert Sung and Detective Yatyu Yam were arrested that year for allegedly taking bribes from the bar managers for information from the cops—specifically for warning the managers about police raids and revoking arrests.
According to The New York Times, at the time, the New York Police Department and the Queens district attorney’s office had launched an investigation into a number of clubs in the borough, with court papers citing extensive drug use in some of the venues and corrupt relationships between club owners and police officers from the 109th Precinct. The probe led to the indictment of the two aforementioned officers on bribery and misconduct charges.
