Sacramento judge halts city’s effort to limit occupancy at historic bar The Trap

Sacramento County Superior Court judge Jennifer Rockwell halted an effort by city officials to limit occupancy at a historic bar and restaurant owned by the family of former Sacramento Kings owner Gregg Lukenbill, amidst an ongoing legal dispute.

On Friday, Rockwell temporarily blocked a correction notice sent on July 16 by Sacramento City Fire Marshal Jason Lee to The Trap. That notice from the city had allowed The Trap to reopen its patio alongside Riverside Boulevard, which the city had closed July 10, but limited occupancy for the entire property to 49 people.

The city cited safety concerns when it ordered a partial closure of The Trap on July 10, while The Bee was reporting a story on Lukenbill’s plans to sue the city over the business. Lukenbill, a long-term Sacramento resident who helped bring the Kings west from Kansas City in 1985, had filed a claim against the city in late June.

Brad Carroll and Michael Laino, attorneys for Lukenbill decried the closure by the city as “a flagrantly retaliatory act” when they filed suit against the city on July 11. In a filing six days later, Lukenbill’s attorneys wrote that the city was “attempting to asphyxiate The Trap.”

Rockwell’s ruling allows the bar to operate at the capacity it had prior to the city’s order to close parts of the bar and then to limit its capacity. The Trap’s capacity is up to 100 patrons on the patio along Riverside Boulevard, 34 patrons on a patio bounding 43rd Avenue and 49 patrons inside the bar.

“It allows The Trap to continue operating the way it always was,” Carroll said. “And that’s all we were seeking.”

Supervising deputy city attorney Andrea Velasquez referred comment to spokesperson Jennifer Singer, who provided a statement.

“As much as we value this historic property, we cannot overlook or take lightly serious issues that involve the safety of customers and employees,” Singer wrote.

Singer added that the city hoped that The Trap would “continue to work with the City to correct hazardous conditions and take all actions necessary to protect the patrons and employees of this valued business.”

In a filing from July 18, senior deputy city attorney Gökalp Y. Gürer wrote that the city wasn’t given adequate notice and that The Trap had already obtained the relief it was seeking when the fire marshal allowed the patio to reopen but wasn’t entitled to an injunction that delays the later decision to limit capacity.

“The Trap appears to argue that because its bar was deemed a historical landmark in 2009, that it is permitted to do what it wants, when it wants, and however it wants to do it, regardless of the regulations provided in the California Fire Code (CFC) and the California Building Code (CBC),” Gürer wrote.

A restaurant has operated on The Trap’s property since 1924, with a portion of the building dating to the 1860s. Lukenbill said the business has been grandfathered in since it predates fire code.

In its correction notice sent July 16, city officials said that successful testing of patio gates installed the previous weekend at The Trap allowed for the patio to be reopened but that the 49-person occupancy limit would remain until further work was completed.

Lukenbill said multiple city officials testified during a hearing in front of Rockwell last week that lasted over an hour but that the judge was unswayed.

“I have to give her credit… for having that kind of Joan Didion laser beam,” said Lukenbill, referencing the celebrated author and Sacramento native who he helped commission a statue of in recent years that now sits in the Sacramento Room at Central Library.

Even in the short-term, the city’s attempts to limit occupancy for The Trap affected business, Lukenbill said.

“All of last weekend… and all of this week, our revenues have been cut substantially by the reduction of the historical occupancy,” Lukenbill said.

Rockwell’s order stays the city’s corrective notice until mid-September, when a hearing in Lukenbill’s case will take place.

This story was originally published July 21, 2025 at 2:37 PM.