Illinois Strip Club Paid Mayor to Allow Prostitution for Years, US Says

In 2003, prosecutors said, the mayor of a northern Illinois city sent a message to the operators of a local strip club: Pay me or I’ll shut you down.

The mayor of Harvey, Illinois, a city of about 18,000 just south of Chicago, knew that the strip club was allowing prostitution in a private area of ​​the club, and he demanded $3,000 a month from the company to keep the club open , the spokesperson said. prosecutors.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, the club gave in to the threat and eventually even agreed to a demand from the mayor to double the payment to $6,000 per month. According to prosecutors, the scheme lasted about fifteen years.

On Monday, Rommell Kellogg, 71, the mayor’s brother, was convicted after a weeklong trial of conspiring to solicit and collect payments from the club, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois said in a rack. Mr. Kellogg faces up to 25 years in prison on that charge, and up to five years for each of the five charges against him related to conspiracy to commit theft and intimidation, prosecutors said.

Corey Johnson, 68, a cousin of the mayor, pleaded guilty last month to a theft charge for his role in raising money in the scheme, prosecutors said.

The sentencing dates for the two have not yet been set.

Gal Pissetzky, a lawyer for Mr. Johnson, said Thursday that he believed Mr. Johnson’s plea deal was a “fair resolution.”

Rommell Kellogg’s attorney declined to comment Thursday.

The indictment does not name Eric Kellogg, the former mayor of Harvey, and he has not been charged in the case. But federal records show he was mayor of Harvey from 2003 to 2019.

Eric Kellogg did not immediately respond to phone messages or emails Thursday.

It is unclear whether federal prosecutors plan to bring additional charges in the scheme. The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment, noting that sentencing against the two suspects found guilty was still pending.

According to the indictment, the strip club, whose name is not listed in court records, could operate while its dancers could engage in prostitution as long as it paid the mayor $3,000 a month. That worked for a few years, until around 2007 or 2008, when the mayor wanted the club to double its monthly payment, prosecutors said.

The club’s operators initially refused to pay $6,000 a month, and days later a police officer arrived at the club and ordered the business closed, according to a criminal complaint. The club later gave in to demands for higher payments, and the deal went through even after the strip club’s owner died in 2008 and an adult child took over, the complaint said.

Federal law enforcement officers searched the club in October 2017 based on evidence of tax crimes and prostitution, the complaint said. The search prompted the club to close for several weeks, and the club’s manager later agreed to cooperate with investigators.

When the club later reopened, the manager was told by investigators not to allow prostitution on the premises but to continue making payments to the mayor, according to the complaint, which did not identify the manager. Investigators documented payments from the club to the mayor from December 8, 2017 to May 3, 2018, totaling $37,000.

As part of the investigation, authorities tapped the phones of Mr. Johnson and Rommell Kellogg, and also obtained some recorded conversations between the club’s manager and Mr. Johnson.

In a conversation between the club manager and Mr. Johnson in December 2017, Mr. Johnson shared a desire to stop working as a middleman, the complaint said.

“I never wanted to be involved from the beginning,” Mr. Johnson said at the meeting.

The club manager and Mr. Kellogg had a meeting in January 2018 in which the manager told Mr. Kellogg that Mr. Johnson wanted to drop out of the plan, the complaint said.

“Corey told me he wanted to stop delivering pizzas,” the manager said, using pizza as the code word for the payments.

According to the complaint, Mr. Kellogg said he would not allow Mr. Johnson to quit his work as a broker.

“He can’t escape out of nowhere,” Mr. Kellogg said at the meeting. “He doesn’t come out of nowhere, because that’s how it goes. That’s useful for me, useful for you. That’s handy.”