A veteran member of the movie projectionists union in Chicago testified Monday he set off crude smoke bombs around the nation in 1998 at the behest of a top union official to coerce labor deals from movie companies.
The witness, Kent Dickinson, identified Albin Brenkus, then second-in-command of the Local 110, as the union official who recruited him to the scheme, supplied him with the ingredients to make the first smoke bombs and paid his expenses in cash in advance of the trips out of town.
Brenkus and two others went on trial Monday in U.S. District Court in Chicago on charges of conspiring to commit arson and to travel interstate to commit arson.
The charges allege that the chemical smoke bombs, an incendiary combination of chlorine and brake fluid, were set off in 20 theaters in 10 states in 1998 and 1999, producing billowing clouds of smoke and causing the evacuation of thousands of patrons from the movie houses.
In opening remarks to the federal jury, Brenkus’ lawyer, Douglas Whitney, said Brenkus may have ordered acts of vandalism as part of misguided bargaining tactics but denied he committed, encouraged or paid others to commit arson.
Even the government’s own evidence showed the smoke bombs were intended to disrupt the theaters’ operations, not to start fires, Whitney contended.
Brenkus, 60, of Willowbrook had risen to the head of Local 110 as its business manager by the time of his indictment last November, but he has since retired from the union.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Sergio Acosta told jurors that the smoke bombs could burst into flames if left alone long enough, and he described flames shooting out of a trash can in a theater in Kansas in August 1999, the final incident.
Dickinson, 53, the government’s first witness, pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to commit arson and admitted igniting smoke bombs in more than a dozen theaters. He is cooperating in hopes of obtaining a reduced prison sentence.
He testified that Local 110 routinely resorted to vandalism as a bargaining tool, and he indicated prospective members were expected to take part in the vandalism before they were allowed to join the projectionists union.
In 1998, the local was under intense pressure, locked out by two companies that later merged to form Loews-Cineplex Entertainment Corp. and struggling to negotiate a new contract with AMC Entertainment, which was re-entering the Chicago-area market.
After the lockout began and negotiations were sputtering, Dickinson said Brenkus instructed him to resume planting the smoke bombs in theaters out of state.
After incidents in Indiana and Ohio, Dickinson said Brenkus told him to set off incendiary devices at Loews’ flagship theater in Manhattan’s Broadway district. “It was time to take the message home,” he quoted Dickinson as telling him.
Dickinson said Brenkus gave him $2,000 to cover the expenses for the trip.
He testified that he and Joseph Marjan, who also pleaded guilty, set off smoke bombs in separate theaters at the Broadway multiplex in August 1998.
The following month, Dickinson said Brenkus told him the New York vandalism had “the desired effect.” Loews had reopened negotiations with Local 110, he said Brenkus informed him.
On trial with Brenkus are Peter C. Lipa, 48, of Wonder Lake and Gregory J. Tortorello, 25, of Bloomingdale.
