Extortion suspect says threat to kill kids, grandkids just a joke

Adhering to a risky legal strategy, a McHenry County man admitted on the witness stand Monday he threatened to kill another man's children and grandchildren if he didn't fork over $50,000 -- but said the threat was just a joke.

Whether the judge who heard Daniel Bailenson's one-day trial Monday finds that claim laughable remains to be seen.

Bailenson, 35, of Woodstock will find out April 11 when Judge Sharon Prather is scheduled to issue a verdict on a felony intimidation charge stemming from the phone message he left on a wealthy acquaintance's answering machine in December 2006.

The owner of a once-popular but now closed teen dance club in Woodstock, Bailenson could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty, though probation also is possible.

The threatening message left for Kenneth Eriksen orders the 64-year-old Bull Valley man to get $50,000 cash and go to a pay phone to call a number left by the caller, or else.

"Tell anybody, including your wife and the police, and your family will be killed one by one, including your grandchildren," the anonymous caller states in the message. "This is not a joke."

Eriksen contacted police after receiving the message and, with investigators standing by later that day, dialed the number left by the caller. Bailenson, who had recently settled a lawsuit over $39,000 in loans the Bull Valley man had made to him, answered the call on his wife's cellular telephone.

On the witness stand Monday, Bailenson admitted he had a grudge against Eriksen because of their legal dispute. But the threat -- despite the message explicitly stating otherwise -- was a joke, he said.

"I had absolutely no intention or no goal to get the money or to scare him," he testified. "My intention was not to follow through on anything here."

His admission, and later arguments by his defense, show Bailenson is trying to walk a fine line between leaving a harassing phone call and intimidation. The call itself, defense attorney Peggy Gerkin said, does not meet the legal definition of intimidation if Bailenson never intended for Eriksen to do anything about it.

"He may have tried to upset someone, to get their attention," Gerkin said. "But there was no intent to follow through on the threat."

Prosecutors scoffed at Bailenson's claims, saying the threat was criminal, not comical.

"He wanted that money and he was going to get that money by threatening Mr. Eriksen's children and grandchildren with death," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Philip Hiscock said. "The fact the defendant did not commit the crime wisely does not mean the crime did not occur."

A second intimidation count was dismissed Monday because the victim in that case has medical issues that would not allow him to appear in court to testify, Hiscock said.