Mundelein gas station gets reprieve

It wasn't as dramatic as a last-second call from a governor to death row, but the owners of a Mundelein gas station facing the possible revocation of their business license because of an employee's sexual remarks received another temporary reprieve Monday.

For the second time since the village board found the Marathon station at 301 Townline Road guilty of being a public nuisance, officials postponed deciding how the owners should be punished. That discussion was to be part of Monday night's village board meeting, but before the session Village Administrator John Lobaito said the hearing had been delayed.

The village's prosecutors asked for a two-week postponement, until the board's Feb. 25 meeting, Lobaito said. In January, the owners' attorneys requested the hearing be delayed until Monday.

The board's inquiry followed the arrest and conviction of an employee who solicited a female customer.

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.

Both victims testified before the board in January. The board unanimously agreed that night that the business was a public nuisance, but members could not agree on a punishment.

Fines and a business-license revocation are among the options the board can consider.

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.