DRUG OVERDOSE KILLS MAN IN CHELSEA PUB, POLICE SAY

A Drug Overdose Kills Man in Chelsea Club, Police Say 21-year-old Baltimore
man died early yesterday after collapsing in a Chelsea nightclub from what
the authorities said was apparently a drug overdose. The police found the
man about 6:50 a.m. in Twilo, a nightclub at 530 West 27th Street. The city
sued the club last year, contending that the open use and sale of the
designer drug ecstasy there created a public nuisance.

The lawsuit, which was filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan after a
New York University student died of an overdose at the club in 1998, is
pending.

As part of the lawsuit, the police filed affidavits stating that drugs were
sold openly inside the club as bartenders and security guards looked the
other way.

The man who died yesterday, identified by the police as James Wiest, 21,
was found inside the club and was taken to St. Vincents Hospital and
Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 7:50 a.m.

The club bills itself on its Web site as "the largest premium nightclub in
New York City" and "Like no other place on earth."

No one answered the club's telephone yesterday, and the owners could not be
reached for comment.