The revelations of former University of Miami booster Nevin Shapiro buying favor with Hurricanes players that have sent shockwaves through the athletic program are no surprise to Peter Honerkamp.
Nor was Shapiro’s conviction last year for running a $930 million Ponzi scheme that sent Shapiro to prison for 20 years. Honerkamp was the victim of Shapiro’s first felony conviction in a 1995 assault case.
“This was his chance to be a big shot, get him in the clubs, be a player — something he’s not,” Honerkamp said.
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Easter Then an owner of the Stephen Talkhouse nightclub in South Beach, Honerkamp said he nearly lost an eye when struck by what he characterizes as a sucker punch by Shapiro. Honerkamp repeated the account of the incident that he swore to in subsequent criminal and civil cases Thursday from Amagansett, N.Y., where he runs a popular club also known as Stephen Talkhouse.
He said he first encountered Shapiro trying to enter the rear of the Miami club along with several companions to avoid paying the cover charge in April 1995.
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“I asked him to leave. He said, ‘Are you coming on to me?’ I looked at the [bouncer] behind me and said, ‘What the hell?’ By the time I turned back, he hit me in the eye,” Honerkamp said. “I wasn’t threatening him in any way whatsoever. I’ve never actually struck anyone, and I’ve been in the nightclub business for 25 years.”
While Shapiro fled, Honerkamp realized he was bleeding profusely. A ring Shapiro was wearing caught him under the eye and rolled the skin into a tiny ball. He said a surgeon who was summoned from a golf course the following day, Easter Sunday, did a remarkable job of saving the eye.
“My eyeball was hanging out. The first three hospitals where I was taken to wouldn’t admit me because of the severity of the trauma,” he said.
Hornerkamp hired a private detective who tracked Shapiro to northern Florida where he was arrested. Shapiro initially claimed he threw the punch in self-defense, but ultimately entered a guilty plea before trial and received 18 months of probation.
A civil suit was settled with Honerkamp receiving reimbursement for his medical bills. His only encounter with Shapiro after the incident at the nightclub was during a deposition hearing.
“I was glaring at him the whole time, and he didn’t have the courage to look me in the eye,” Honerkamp said. “If that guy had called me up and apologized, that would have been the end of it. He didn’t because he’s a coward.”
Honerkamp recovered from his injury, and his New York club is a hotspot in the Hamptons of Long Island, a relatively small venue known for attracting big-name entertainers. He has received commendation for his efforts in support of military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan through the Wounded Warrior Project. The past six years he has helped organize the Soldier Ride in Miami, a charity cycling event from South Beach to Key West.
He was on a treadmill earlier this week when news broke about Shapiro’s claims of providing impermissible benefits to at least 72 University of Miami athletes. The accounts of lavishing athletes with cash, prostitutes, meals, glitzy entertainment and more are in character with Honerkamp’s recollections of Shapiro 16 years ago.
“He just basically wanted to act as if he didn’t do what he did. That’s probably emblematic of what he did here. He took people’s money, ripped them off so that he could be a big shot and then got mad at everyone because they didn’t help him out [after his arrest] for the money he stole from other people that he spent on them,” Honerkamp said. “None of this is surprising to me. The guy is as low as it comes. I’m just glad he’s in jail.”
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