PROVIDENCE — The climax is near in what the city Law Department says is the longest-running liquor licensing case in memory, that of the downtown dance club Level II.

Branding Level II a “disorderly house,” a term used in a statute, the police have asked the city Board of Licenses to revoke the liquor license of the club, at 101 Richmond St.

State Rep. John J. DeSimone, D-Providence, lawyer for the three club owners, has said that the police are unfairly picking on Level II with exaggerated complaints. One of the owners is newly elected Rep. Scott A. Slater, D-Providence.

The owners and the police have been skirmishing since Dec. 18, when the disorderly house petition was submitted. A drawn-out multipart hearing ensued.

Testimony wrapped up the day before Thanksgiving and the lawyers gave their closing summations, and now the license board will make a decision on an unannounced date.

The police presented evidence through McHugh of 14 alleged incidents of disorderliness, the most serious of which may have been the stabbing of Level II bouncer Terrence McNamara by a customer on April 5, 2009.

During one part of the hearing, in May, former employee Diana Rossi declared of club ownership, “They run their club completely outrageous.” Rossi, who was McNamara’s girlfriend at the time, was checking coats for Level II the night McNamara was stabbed in the lower back and seriously injured.

When asked why she quit shortly after the incident, she replied, “I don’t like the environment.”

But Patrolman Giuseppe Scarcella, who has worked private-duty details at Level II, testified after Rossi, “I think they’re doing an OK job” in terms of management and safety.

From mid-December to mid-January, Level II was closed after the license board suspended its liquor license at the request of the police due to violence and other trouble. The police have asked that the 30-day suspension and a history of previous infractions be counted against Level II in the disorderly house case, which incorporates different allegations.

DeSimone presented testimony regarding security measures that have been taken since the alleged incidents occurred, including the installation of surveillance cameras and a metal detector, and the hiring of four more bouncers.

Besides Slater, who works as a budget analyst for the City of Providence, the co-owners are Gaetano Gravino, of Warwick, and Louis Peters, of Cumberland.

If the license board finds Level II to be a disorderly house and takes away its license, there could be serious consequences for Gravino’s career in the hospitality business. The statute says that anyone who is a licensee of an establishment found to be a disorderly house shall be disqualified from holding a liquor license for five years in Rhode Island.

Senior Assistant City Solicitor Kevin F. McHugh asked the license board that if it finds Level II to be a disorderly house, that it also declare Gravino disqualified under the statute and order him to divest his financial interest in the liquor license of Elements, a dance club that is located on the ground floor of the building occupied by Level II..

DeSimone said the statute does not apply to Gravino personally because he is only a stockholder of the corporations that hold the licenses for Level II and Elements, and not a licensee in his own name.

gsmith@projo.com