Chicago officials have demanded the owner of the E2 nightclub be jailed for at least a year. They say he was illegally running the place when 21 people were killed in a stampede earlier this week.
They claim Dwain Kyles had ignored a court order from last July to shut the place down because of building code violations that included failure to provide enough exits.
They have also called on Judge Daniel Lynch to find Kyles in criminal contempt of court and put him behind bars.
"You don't have a right to disobey a court order until someone catches you or until a disaster happens," Mayor Richard Daley said.
Andre Grant, a lawyer for the E2 owners, claimed a deal had been reached in October to keep the place open.
The club was the site of one of the deadliest stampedes in recent memory.
Hundreds of people who were packed into the club on the city's South Side on Sunday night rushed downstairs after bouncers broke up a fight and someone sprayed pepper gas or Mace.
There were also suggestions someone might have shouted a warning about a terrorist attack.
In the resulting panic, club-goers found themselves squashed and flattened against the club's glass doors. Twenty-one people died and 57 were injured.
AP