(MCT) — Will County has shut down a swingers club operating out of a six-bedroom home in the far south suburbs, saying it lacked a business permit and that the home's basement — which included a concrete "dungeon room" equipped with chains and a padded sawhorse — wasn't up to code.
The home is owned by a Crete businessman who once ran a Mokena nightclub complex but is now thought to have fled, perhaps to Costa Rica, allegedly leaving behind hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid debts, according to records, police and a former business partner.
Club Erotica, with the motto "If it feels good, do it," held themed sex parties with food and musical laser-light shows for about six months in the rural, cabin-style home, which was filled with taxidermied animals, records show. The home is on a secluded lot outside Beecher, hundreds of yards from the closest neighbors.
The home, which is in foreclosure and scheduled to be auctioned at a sheriff's sale this month, belonged to Mark Ferrari, 54, who ran The Colosseum, a Mokena sports bar, restaurant, beer garden and music venue for about five years before it closed in 2009. Ferrari also owned construction and property maintenance businesses. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.
A phone number was listed on a Club Erotica brochure taken as evidence by investigators. The number rang up "Mike," who said he runs Club Erotica but declined to give his last name for privacy reasons.
Mike told the Tribune he "paid a lot of money" to lease the property, which the swingers club used on weekends for events such as "Naughty Schoolgirl Night" and a Super Bowl poker party, according to handwritten calendar entries in court records. The lease won't expire until December, though Mike said he was aware that the property might be auctioned before then.
Ferrari, who owns a gated home in Crete, owed more than $500,000 on the Beecher-area property, which he purchased in 2005, records show. Will County police last summer called animal control to the Beecher-area home after finding a horse, two donkeys and three goats that "appeared to be uncared for,", a police spokeswoman said.
An anonymous call to Will County's Land Use Department in late March triggered an investigation into Club Erotica for violating zoning rules that prohibit businesses in residential areas, records show. Local officials said they hadn't previously received any complaints.
"I had no idea it was even out there," Beecher Police Chief Jeffrey Weissgerber said.
When police obtained a search warrant and entered the home last month, they found mattresses stacked against walls, a "sex swing" in a "mini-orgy room," a disco ball and a number of banners with the club's name, according to photos and records released through a public-information request.
Swingers clubs aren't illegal and have existed in Will County and the surrounding suburbs for decades.
Although Mike doesn't think his club is a business and said the money he brings in is used to pay for security and supplies, he decided it wasn't worth fighting in court.
"When all this went down … I talked to the (assistant) state's attorney," Mike said. "He said that he was making it his business to make sure nothing happens at that location. At that point, we try to avoid any kind of drama … we moved on."
"The bottom line is, it was a zoning issue," said Charles Pelkie, a spokesman for the Will County state's attorney's office. "They didn't have the proper license."
Mike said he's now operating out of a Northwest Indiana home.
He said the club's events are for consenting adults 21 and older and that security, sometimes off-duty police officers, is present. Those who attend pay "donations" on a sliding scale that descends from $80 for single men, $40 for couples and $20 for single women.
"Everything is on the up-and-up," Mike said. "It's adults doing what they want to do."
In June, South Chicago Heights police entered Ferrari as missing in a national law enforcement database after attempting to track him down when angry contractors who allegedly hadn't been paid tried to break into his Four Seasons Maintenance offices, Chief William Joyce said.
The workers were trying to haul off snow-removal equipment and other items, and police were called to secure the business, Joyce said. Authorities tried unsuccessfully to contact Ferrari.
"Within a day or two he cleaned out his house and disappeared," said Joyce, adding that his department does not have an open criminal investigation into Ferrari.
According to a lawsuit filed by Ferrari's brother-in-law Benio Infelise, Ferrari and his wife, Jeanne, were taking money out of the Mokena business to make personal purchases such as property in Costa Rica, where the couple planned to retire.
Infelise says he was "frozen out" of the company and never got his share of the profits, according to the lawsuit. He thinks his sister and Ferrari shifted money between their three businesses, which also included Ferrari Construction, the lawsuit says.
"I had no knowledge," Infelise told the Tribune. "I had no idea, this was all behind my back."
A Will County judge entered a default judgment in favor of Infelise last fall after Ferrari failed to respond, but he hasn't ruled on how much to award in damages.