Judge allows racketeering suit against Mount Prospect to proceed

Federal Judge Ronald A. Guzman has cleared the way for Tod Curtis' federal civil rights and RICO complaint against Mount Prospect to proceed to trial, according to Riccardo Di Monte, the lawyer representing Curtis.

Curtis, owner of Ye Olde Town Inn in downtown Mount Prospect, believes village officials have been conspiring to drive him out of business for years and want to proceed with a downtown development without him.

In response, he is pursuing a civil racketeering lawsuit against Mayor Irvana Wilks, several municipal employees and a local developer, claiming they have formed an "ongoing enterprise and scheme" for nearly a decade.

According to Curtis, village officials "employed endless harassing inspections of the property."

They also allowed the Blues Bar, owned by local developer and dentist Errol Oztekin, to be built next door, even though they knew it would damage the Inn because the establishments share a wall.

"Their actions were calculated to harm and harass (Curtis) and to send a clear message to Curtis that he was to leave the village," the lawsuit states. "... Actions included a variety of trespasses, harassment, intentional damage to the property, bogus emergencies staged by the village."

One of those actions occurred on April 11, 2008, after the village shut down Ye Olde Town Inn for code violations related to structural, plumbing and electrical problems.

Racketeering lawsuits under the federal RICO statute are typically used to charge organized crime rings and corrupt politicians but have broad applications.