More than a dozen former or current law-enforcement officers were charged with filing false tax returns by hiding income they made while moonlighting as security guards for three strip clubs owned by a man who is the target of a federal probe.
The 15 defendants, charged in separate indictments made public Friday, allegedly didn’t report a combined $460,000 from working as bouncers at Heavenly Bodies in Elk Grove Village, Skybox in Harvey and Cowboys in Markham, authorities said.
The tax investigation of the bouncers is believed to be a spinoff of a probe of Michael Wellek, the owner of the three strip clubs, who is under investigation for alleged tax evasion by the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation division, according to court records.
Wellek’s attorney, Harvey Silets, pointed out that his client wasn’t part of the charges made public Friday. Wellek has not been charged with any crime and has denied wrongdoing.
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David Bayless, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, said Officers Richard A. Barber, 38, Keith T. Fuelling, 32, and Christopher F. Lenti, 31, would be stripped of their police powers as a result of the charges. Internal affairs investigators also are looking into whether the officers violated department policy by working in clubs serving alcohol, Bayless said.
Bill Cunningham, a spokesman for the Cook County sheriff’s office, said Tremelle Mansfield, 38, a correctional officer who lives in Robbins, was suspended with pay pending a hearing next week.
Another defendant, David Miro, 43, has been a police officer for Calumet City for almost four years and previously was a Harvey officer.
Also charged were Ronald L. Bester, 50, a Harvey police dispatcher; Paul R. Kelley, 59, of Homewood, John A. Pagorek, 56, of Cedar Lake, Ind., and Joseph Thomas, of Plainfield, all former Harvey police officers; and Vincent D. Vance, 45, of Harvey, a former Harvey corrections officer.
The indictments also named Patrick J. Lopez, 42, of Hometown; Marcus McBryde of Olympia Fields; Frank Roman of Chicago; Daniel J. Tobin II, 23, of Mokena; and Homer Dillard Jr., 65, of Thornton.