11 mo. ago • 99%

Illinois Strip Club Paid Mayor to Allow Prostitution for Years, U.S. Says

www.nytimes.com Illinois Strip Club Paid Mayor to Allow Prostitution for Years, U.S. Says

The former mayor of Harvey, Ill., demanded thousands in monthly payments from a strip club to allow it to stay open, federal prosecutors said.

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

The mayor of Harvey, Ill., a city of about 18,000 just south of Chicago, knew that the strip club allowed prostitution in a private area of the club, and he demanded $3,000 a month from the business to let it stay open, according to prosecutors.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, the club yielded to the threat, eventually even acquiescing to a demand from the mayor to double its payment to $6,000 per month. The scheme continued for about 15 years, prosecutors said.

20 comments

Wow, what and atrocity! How dare sex work be carried out in a place with security and safeguards! What would Jesus think?!?! Oh, wait....

32
- Illegal strip club brothels are AWFUL. Owners are scum, they'll threaten and blacklist dancers that don't put up, get women on drugs and under their thumbs. Just pimps with a storefront.
  
  What we want is actual legal prostitution, where there are actual regulations and safety checks, not just illusion.
  
  46
  
  I didn't think I needed the /s
  
  Then again, what's to stop a legal brothel owner from doing the same shady shit? The authority figures were already paid off!
  
  4
Oh now they care about lobbying

19
what else is a small town strip club for, my brothers and sisters

12
- You can't really call Harvey a small town. It's part of the Chicago (sub)urban sprawl, and a pretty bad area.
  
  2
I was trying to work out who Harvey III was ffs

7
So there most definitely is Sex in the Champagne Room,.. and drugs.

4
Harvey, Ill.,

I guess Illinois people hate Helvetica.

4
- I see you
  
  1
Does Illinois have anit-pimping laws and is the mayor being charged with them?

3
Some people will do anything for money

1
I don’t care to register to continue reading. Are prosecutors state or federal?

1
- Federal
  
  4
  
  Excellent! Thank you, it was late and I was tired.
  
  1

You've viewed 20 comments.