Former Frankfort pizzeria owner sentenced to probation for up-skirt videos of minors, women

3rd man to avoid prison time for unauthorized videos of minors

Michael Papandrea

A former pizzeria owner from Frankfort was sentenced in November to probation after he pleaded guilty to making clandestine up-skirt videos of female minors and women, making him at least the third defendant in Will County to avoid prison time for that offense.

In 2020, Michael Papandrea, 60, was indicted on 17 felony charges of unauthorized video recording of minors and women who were his employees. Papandrea ran Parmesans Wood Stone Pizza in Frankfort, Parmesans Station in Tinley Park and Parmesans Manheim in Chicago.

On Nov. 28, Papandrea ultimately pleaded guilty to just six of those charges while the rest were dismissed as part of a plea deal negotiated by Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow’s Office.

Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak sentenced Papandra to 24 months of probation and 50% of a 14-day jail sentence. He received credit for one day served while incarcerated.

Papandrea was booked into Will County jail around 1 p.m. on Nov. 28 and released about 8 a.m. on Dec. 3.

As part of Papandrea’s sentence, he must obtain a psychosexual evaluation, comply with its recommendations and have no unsupervised contact with minors. Court records show Papandrea received an evaluation on May 24 and has been receiving ongoing treatment.

Parmesans Wood Stone Pizza, 10235 W. Lincoln Highway, Frankfort.

Papandrea was also ordered to have no contact for 24 months with 36 other people, many of whom are listed as victims in the case or plaintiffs in lawsuits filed against him in Will and Cook counties.

While the case was pending, Papandrea was allowed to work and live in New York. Prosecutors had objected to Papandrea residing in New York.

Court records show Papandrea has addresses listed in Patchogue, New York, and Manteno, Illinois.

The offense that Papandrea pleaded guilty to committing is unauthorized video recording.

Ryan Thompson, 32, of Joliet, and Richard Buss, 39 of Crown Point, Indiana, both pleaded guilty to that offense in recent years. They received a similar sentence from Judge Dave Carlson called sex offender probation that allowed them to avoid prison time.

Ryan Thompson (pictured) pleaded guilty to secretly recording videos of underage girls in a locker room while he was working as a janitor at Chaney-Monge School in Crest Hill.

Neither Papandrea, Thompson or Buss will have to register as a sex offender because the offense of unauthorized video recording is not considered a sex crime under Illinois law, even though the law forbids the video recording of a person’s intimate parts without their consent.

In 2018, Thompson pleaded guilty to secretly recording videos of female minors in a locker room at Chaney-Monge School in Crest Hill. Thompson had worked as a janitor at the school.

Thompson was sentenced to 30 months of sex offender probation, which he completed last year.

In 2019, Buss, pleaded guilty to making a video recording of a female minor in the bathroom of a Channahon residence. He was also sentenced to 30 months of sex offender probation, which he recently completed on Dec. 15.

Richard Buss