Strip club bouncer gets probation

By Cindy Landrum  

JANUARY 6, 2011 12:16 p.m. (0)

A Platinum Plus bouncer received probation Tuesday after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in connection with a club patron’s death last March.

Jason Alan Purcell, 32, was sentenced to five years probation in the death of Joseph M. Collura of Moore.

The sentence angered Collura’s family, especially after it was revealed in court that standard probation terms would not prohibit Purcell from continuing to work as a bouncer at the strip club.

“I am disappointed beyond words that the system has failed me,” said Collura’s widow, Trina. “You get probation for stealing a bicycle, not for taking someone’s life.”

Assistant Solicitor Judy Munson told Judge Robin Stillwell video from the club showed Purcell (photo at  left) carrying Collura out of the club for at least 150 feet by the neck while two other employees carried his lower body.

“We recognize the defendant absolutely had the right to remove him from the club,” she told the judge. “He did what he had the right to do, but he did it in a criminally-negligent manner.”

An autopsy showed Collura died of asphyxiation.

Purcell’s attorney, Randy Hiller, called Collura’s death a tragedy that should not have happened, but he said Purcell never intended to harm the man.

Purcell answered the judge’s questions but said nothing else during the hearing.

Collura’s wife described her husband as her high school sweetheart and amazing father who doted on his two daughters, ages 9 and 6.

“I miss hearing the sounds of pure happiness in our children,” she told the judge.

Collura’s father, also named Joseph, said Collura was at the strip club for business.

“When you’re running a million dollar business and your biggest client wants to go to the strip club to meet, you go,” he said, adding that Collura’s boss was there, too.

Collura’s brother, Andrew, said he works as a bouncer at a club similar to Platinum Plus.

“There’s a right way and a dead-wrong way to get somebody out of a club,” he said.

Before the hearing, Collura’s mother, Regina Collura, confronted Purcell in the hallway in front of the courtroom.

“That’s the one who killed my son. You killed my son,” she said, getting face-to-face with the man who would later admit to his role in her son’s death. Purcell said nothing as Collura called him a couple of profane names before he was led into the courtroom by his attorney.