By: Diane Benjamin
State’s Attorney Don Knapp just sent me the final documents. The City of Bloomington is getting $430,230. The Illinois Department of Revenue is getting $19,770. That’s where the $450,000 previously reported came from.
Butler plead guilty to a Class A misdemeanor for manipulating concessions sales.
BMI Concessions, operated by John Butler plead guilty to one Class 1 felony connected to BMI Concessions. Personally Butler is not a felon.
John Butler will spend 90 days on monitored home confinement. The sentence was 91 days with credit for 1 day served.
Bottom line is Butler bought his way out of this one.
Read the final documents here:
Since my days of playing lawyer are OVER, I had a lawyer look at those documents to verify what was agreed to. My lawsuit proved Butler did not pay the city the amount he should have based on the City owned Micros equipment records. It appears that wasn’t brought up as evidence.
My final court story: https://blnnews.com/2016/08/26/bombshell-sit-down-before-reading/
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So basically, he skates. So tired of this merde! He should be pounding rocks into rubble!
Butler got off way too easy…. go figure!!
Shouldn’t David Hales be going to jail? Renner? And the Council members who ignored their fiduciary duties?
A plea deal is the best thing that could happen to Hales (rhymes with fails), Tari, and City Hall. Imagine what would have come out in open court. I’m wondering if Butler’s lawyer pointed out in plea negotiations with the State that things might not look good for these characters if a trial were to take place.
The deep black hole known as The Arena continues to grow. Not only was hundreds of thousands stolen from the city, but the cost to prosecute this case had to be very costly. Another hidden cost of this gem that does not show up in the on-going operating cost.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot the additional $600,000 that was approved last night to repair the parking attached parking garage.
Usually in these deals, they reach out to the victim – in this case, the city leadership who provided “lax oversight” ( WGLT’s words) – and asked them: What would you rather have? This guy sit in prison for a few years or $XXX,XXX restitution.
They give great weight to this, knowing that to get the restitution, they will have to drastically reduce or eliminate an actual prison sentence. So yes, the person is buying his or her way out of going to jail. Considering the city’s finances, they were not going to pass up a chance to get this amount of money and plug it into the budget. I am hoping it will be used to offset the city’s large losses for the Coliseum, but knowing some on the Council, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are trying to use it to spend more money on something not needed.
At least with Butler, the money had to be paid up front. I have seen other situations where the person is given the length of a probation term – years – to pay the funds back.