Owners of burned nightclub must pay comp fine

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--A federal bankruptcy court judge has declined to discharge a $1.07 million penalty levied against the owners of The Station nightclub for failing to carry workers compensation insurance.

A fire set off by a pyrotechnic display during a February 2003 performance by the band Great White killed 100 people at the nightclub. Four of those killed were nightclub employees.

The club's owners, who pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter, sought to have the fine discharged in bankruptcy proceedings.

But the bankruptcy judge on Thursday declined to discharge the fine levied by a workers comp court judge, according to the owners' attorney, Claude Lefebvre of Claude Lefebvre, Christopher Lefebvre P.C. in Pawtucket, R.I.