N. Aurora restaurant owners plan to contest police raid

A man and woman arrested after a police raid at a North Aurora restaurant are free on bail and intend to contest the search that seized all their financial records, an attorney said Wednesday.

Jim P. Karonis Jr., 47, and Denise Fardelos, 52, bonded out of the Kane County jail Tuesday, awaiting a May 29 court hearing on charges of theft and possession of stolen property.

Karonis and Fardelos own the Wild Orchard Restaurant, at 459 N. Randall Road, which was raided earlier this week by police from North Aurora and Bolingbrook.

The two are accused of furnishing the inside of the Wild Orchard almost entirely with stolen items, such as stoves and other fixtures, and bilking others with phony invoices, said Chicago attorney Irwin Frazin.

"The police have raided their house, raided their restaurant. They took everything they could find," said Frazin, Karonis' lawyer. "We're going to contest the search warrant. We're going to be pretty aggressive on this."

Karonis, of 3108 S. Route 59 in Naperville, and Fardelos, of Montgomery, will plead not guilty to the allegations, Irwin said.

Prosecutors and police in both communities have released scant details, citing the ongoing probe, which could result in additional charges.

Police are sifting through piles of financial documents, receipts, invoices and other records seized in the raid, North Aurora police Lt. Scott Buziecki said.

"It's rather involved and there's quite a lot of documents to go through," Buziecki said. "There's a lot more to do."

Karonis has a criminal record in DuPage County, which includes convictions in 2000 for forgery, insurance fraud and other offenses linked to restaurants he owned in the suburbs, court records show.

The Wild Orchard opened earlier this year.