Mundelein gas station fined, must close for 7 days

A Mundelein gas station where an employee made sexual remarks to female customers will be shut down for seven days and its owners fined $3,000, under the terms of a settlement agreement approved Monday.

The Marathon station at 301 Townline Road will be shut down starting Friday and it will stay closed through March 6, according to the deal. An attorney for its owners said they plan to pay the fine today.

Trustees found the business guilty of being a public nuisance in January.

The board's actions were prompted by the arrest and conviction of an employee who police said made sexual remarks to two female customers.

Benjamin J. Brophy, 32, of 301 Cherrywood Court, Vernon Hills, was arrested Oct. 24 after telling a female customer who had purchased gas and a lottery ticket she could win $40 by sleeping with him, police said.

Brophy pled guilty to solicitation of a sexual act in November, police said. He was sentenced to one year supervision, fined $200 and court costs and ordered to have a mental evaluation, police said.

Additionally, in June 2006, Brophy asked a female customer if she was wearing underwear, according to village documents. The victim in that case opted not to file charges.

In November, the village board decided a similar case stemming from confrontations at another local gas station.

The panel suspended the business license for the Clark gas station at 4 E. Hawley St. for 15 days and fined the owner, Family Fuel Inc., $5,000.

That action followed the arrest of one employee who accosted a female customer. Going back to 2005, four other female customers said they were solicited for sex at the Clark station, too.