A Westmoreland County judge has ordered the New Kensington Elks Lodge to shut its doors for a full year, siding with county prosecutors who argued the Third Avenue club had become a public nuisance following years of police calls and the fatal shooting of a bouncer working outside the building. Common Pleas Judge Chris Scherer's order took effect July 31, closing a legal fight that stretched from an emergency shutdown order in December through a formal hearing this summer.
According to CBS News Pittsburgh, the Court of Common Pleas judge sided with the district attorney's office in its effort to close the lodge, formally known in court records as IBPOE of W Valley Lodge 294, located at 932 Third Avenue. As reported by TribLIVE, Judge Scherer found that the lodge had failed to abide by a conditional licensing agreement with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board that required scanning patron identification and maintaining adequate security cameras and guards.
A Bouncer's Death Triggered the Shutdown Push
The push to close the lodge traces directly back to December 6, 2025, when 46-year-old Jeffrey Ballard, who worked as a bouncer at the club, was fatally shot outside the establishment. Per the same TribLIVE reporting, investigators say Ballard was accidentally shot in the upper left thigh when his brother, Steffon Ballard, drew a handgun from his sock to pistol-whip another man during a parking lot dispute. Steffon Ballard faces criminal homicide and weapons charges, and those charges remain pending.
Days after the shooting, District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli and the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement obtained an emergency preliminary injunction on December 19, 2025, temporarily shutting the venue down while formal hearings played out. That timeline means the lodge had already been closed for months by the time Judge Scherer's final one-year order took effect this summer.
Years of Police Calls Cited by Prosecutors
Prosecutors built their case in part on the club's documented history with law enforcement. Official records from the Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office show police responded to 32 separate incidents at or directly connected to the Elks Lodge between 2022 and December 2025, a pattern the DA's office says demonstrated a systemic problem rather than a single isolated event.
Defense attorneys for the lodge pushed back hard on that framing. In a July 27 court filing, they argued that police testimony provided only “scant” proof linking the emergency calls directly to lodge operations, contending instead that the calls reflected broader neighborhood gang and gun violence rather than problems originating inside the club itself.
Part of a Broader Enforcement Pattern
The closure fits into a wider strategy District Attorney Ziccarelli has pursued since taking office in 2022. She has repeatedly turned to nuisance bar legal actions against liquor-licensed establishments across Westmoreland County, previously negotiating the closure of Sweeney's Steakhouse in Rostraver in 2022 and seeking nuisance status for the Rialto Cafe in Greensburg in 2023.
The legal authority behind these actions comes from Section 6-611 of the Pennsylvania Liquor Code, which empowers county district attorneys and the state police to file civil equity actions in Common Pleas Court to enjoin and abate licensed premises operating as public nuisances, according to FindLaw. That statute gave Ziccarelli's office the standing to pursue the New Kensington case from the start.
What happens to the fraternal lodge's charter once the one-year closure period ends next summer remains an open question. Criminal proceedings against Steffon Ballard are also still pending, leaving the legal fallout from Jeffrey Ballard's death unresolved even as the civil case against the club itself has now concluded with the judge's order.
