The owner of a gay bar tried to hide insurance fraud behind a fake hate crime.
Prosecutors said Elliott doused the bar in alcohol, wrote gay slurs on the wall, then lit it on fire.
Previously, the owner played the victim card to the hilt.
The club’s owner, Frank Elliot, said earlier that he believed the blaze was suspicious because derogatory messages were scrawled on the wall inside the burned-out club. Authorities were seen removing a piece of concrete wall and loading it onto a truck.
“I’m beyond shocked,” said Elliott, 25. “I have nothing.”
“My stomach has been in knots since 6:30 this morning,” Elliott told WGN-TV. “My whole life, everything that I’ve worked for … my whole life is on the line and I don’t know what to think or even begin with.”
Social leftists are dupes and victimhood is lucrative.
For more info, the amazing Crime in Boystown/Wrigleyville blog is your indepth coverage of Chicago’s gayborhood.
http://www.cwbchicago.com/2015/08/frank-elliott-former-boystown-bar-owner.html
This guy’s a first rate asshole.
This guy’s a first rate asshole.
So, future Chicago congressman? Senator?
Bar owners have been doing this for decades! In Charlotte in the late 80’s, the owners of one bar burned down the city’s most popular one, Scorpio. If I’m not mistaken, some in the gay community tried to spin it as a homophobic attack. Those guys ended up in prison.
Between the Gay coupledom, the “gym/health craze”, DUI enforcement, LGB ordinances, and the greater acceptable of gay people in “ordinary” bars and public establishments; owning a “gay bar” isn’t the license to print-0money that they were 20-years ago. Other than bars in unique Gayborhoods or “entertainment/tourists destinations”, gay bars are a dying-breed nationwide.
So, future Chicago congressman? Senator?
This clown is down on the bottom rungs on the gay hierarchy (gayerarchy?) in Chicago. The gay aldermen, like all aldermen, play to their constituents as the “I’m a minority!” and they’re voted in but never out. But now they have a “Gay Caucus” in the Chicago City Council. We have one clown here who is our version of Barney Frank, minus the male escort but double the creep and triple the graft.
And Ted B is right – I think the notion of a gay bar is dying off. At least here it is. But then again I just go to them to drink beer and watch sports.
Probation? You got to be kidding!
I’m with boater-does insurance fraud and arson only rate probation now?
Insurance scammers have been doing this for decades. I remember one case back in the late 1980s where a guy claimed that his apartment was ransacked, holes punched in walls, clothes all torn up, furniture broken, and anti-Jewish slurs painted on the walls along with swastikas.
The local community rallied around him, donations poured in.
Later it was revealed that it was an insurance scam. How did the police know? His wedding albums were left untouched; and his kid’s bedroom was also left alone.
If you’re going to scam the insurance – try harder to make it real!
Indeed they have. When I first heard this story, I thought it was par for the course. Bar owners don’t get the derision they deserve, unlike prostitutes, debt collectors, and used car dealers.
As per the WLS-TV/ABC7 Chicago story, you’ll note that he is also required to make restitution to the tune of some $700,000. I’m guessing that the pre-sentencing investigation showed that a) he wasn’t a threat to the community (like being a serial arsonist or having an extensive criminal history); and b) he is actually capable of making that restitution. I would also guess that the insurance company gave their imprimatur to the sentence, since they are more concerned about recovering the money than throwing someone in jail with minimal chances of recovery.
Correction: bar scammer ordered to pay $107K in restitution and it was part of a plea deal.