The brother of former Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg has been convicted by a federal jury in a yearslong shakedown scheme in which thousands of dollars were extorted by the operator of a strip club in that city, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago.
A jury Monday convicted Rommell Kellogg, 71, of Harvey, of all five charges against him, including conspiracy to commit theft and intimidation and causing the use of facilities in interstate commerce to promote theft and intimidation, according to a news release from the office.
The verdicts were returned following a weeklong trial before U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, who did not immediately set a sentencing date.
Each county carries a prison term of up to five years, according to the U.S. attorney.
Corey Johnson, a cousin of Eric Kellogg, had been charged with Rommell Kellogg in March 2019 and was the bagman in the conspiracy, according to the news release.
He collected biweekly $3,000 payments from the business and delivered the money to Kellogg.
From 2003 to 2018, Kellogg and Johnson conspired to regularly demand and collect payments from the strip club based on threats that the city of Harvey would potentially interfere with the club’s operations if the payments were not made, according to prosecutors.
In exchange for the payments, the business was allowed to continue to operate, even though the conspirators and others knew that acts of prostitution were occurring on-site, according to prosecutors.
Johnson, 68, of Harvey, pleaded guilty last month to a theft charge and is due to be sentenced Feb. 14. Prosecutors have indicated they will recommend a prison term of not longer than six months for him.
Eric Kellogg was not named in the criminal complaint against his brother and cousin, and prosecutors noted that Rommell Kellogg and Johnson “are cousins whose relatives served in high-ranking positions in Harvey government.”
After 16 years as Harvey mayor, Eric Kellogg left office in spring 2019, barred from seeking reelection in that year’s mayoral contest due to term limits. Replacing him was attorney Christopher Clark, who had played a key role in the term limiting of the mayor.
According to the complaint against Rommell Kellogg, a longtime manager of the unidentified strip club told authorities in 2017 that he had made payoffs to Johnson about every two weeks for several years.
The manager told authorities that in about 2003, the club’s then-operator told him Mayor Kellogg had demanded a payoff of $3,000 a month to allow prostitution to continue.
Johnson was also hired at the time by the club to work security on orders of the mayor, according to the complaint.
Over the next five years, the manager told authorities, the club’s then-operator complained several times about the alleged monthly payments to Kellogg. Then in 2007 or 2008, the then-operator said that the mayor had demanded that the payoffs be doubled to $6,000 a month, the manager told authorities.
The then-operator refused to pay up, and Harvey police shut down the business three separate times over the next week, the manager told authorities.
“Tell your boss to just pay the man,” a Harvey police officer said during the third visit, or words to that effect, according to the complaint.
After that, the then-operator agreed to pay $6,000 a month in bribes, the manager told authorities.
After agreeing to cooperate with law enforcement in 2017, the strip club manager wore a hidden wire as he made his payoffs to Johnson between October 2017 and May 2018, prosecutors alleged.
Employees would use code words such as “pizza” and “rent” money to refer to the regular payoffs, authorities alleged.
In 2017, when the club was briefly shuttered after a law enforcement raid, Johnson told the manager that they would no longer have to pay — so long as the prostitution ended, according to the complaint.
About a week later, the club reopened without the prostitution, but Johnson and the others soon began demanding payments again, the charges alleged.
According to Johnson’s plea agreement, more than $500,000 was paid by the club to Johnson, although some of that money was provided to the club by the FBI after the club manager agreed to cooperate with authorities.
mnolan@tribpub.com
