SOBE Club Pays $5 Million For Bouncer's Alleged Brutality
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A video released Thursday shows 22-year-old Youness Adlan at Jackson Memorial Hospital, in therapy, trying to learn to walk and talk again. On New Year's Day, Adlan was in a coma that would last three months and leave him with permanent brain damage.
"I hope that nobody, nobody, nobody, will be in this situation," Adlan's father, Najem, said Wednesday, tears streaking his face. "It is a terrible situation."
The father took little solace as the family's attorneys announced the owners of the now defunct Cameo night club on South Beach have paid a $5 million settlement, the maximum limits of their insurance coverage.
A hulking club bouncer, Cody Quaife, was arrested after what witnesses say was an unprovoked attack on the college student, who was on vacation from Rhode Island.
Security video released Thursday shows the bouncer confront the student at the club's side door, grab him and yank him out onto the sidewalk. Off camera, witnesses say Quaife slugged the young man, his head hitting the sidewalk with such force it cracked his skull in several places. The video shows witnesses recoiling in horror.
The bouncer, who stood a foot taller than Adlan, and outweighed him by more than a hundred pounds, was arrested.
"He can't be alone, he needs help, he can't walk," Adlan's father said Thursday.
Nine months after the attack, he said his son is virtually helpless.
"We teach him everything. He can't go to the bathroom. He can't do anything himself," he added.
Family attorney Jason Brenner said the night club was responsible for its employee's behavior.
"Youness was a patron there," Brenner said. "The club had an obligation to protect him. This individual that attacked him was not trained."
By law, bouncers may not touch – let alone slug anyone – unless in self-defense.
According to police at the time, numerous witnesses said the college student posed no threat to the bouncer, and the roundhouse blow that nearly killed him was unprovoked.
The victim's family continues to endure constant heartache.
"Day by day, hour by hour, when we look at our son, it's very terrible," his father said.
While the civil case against Club Cameo has been settled, the criminal charge of felony battery against bouncer Cody Quaife, is still pending. If convicted, he faces hard time in prison.
Neither the owners of the club, nor their attorneys returned calls seeking comment.