Small-town Illinois mayor is accused of demanding $3,000 a month from strip club where prostitutes met clients in private area – before doubling his demand to $6,000 a month: Scheme was carried out for 15 years

A small-town mayor forced a strip club to pay him $6,000 a month for 15 years or he would close the club, police allege.

Arnie's Idle Hour in Harvey, Ill., population 18,000 near Chicago, made the payments starting in 2003 so it could provide illegal prostitution services.

Mayor Eric Kellogg is said to have issued the ultimatum shortly after taking office and had his brother Rommell and cousin Corey Johnson collect the money.

The extortion started with a sum of $3,000, but was doubled a few years later after the mayor reportedly sent police to shut down the club when the owners balked at the new sum.

“Tell your boss to just pay the man,” said a police officer when he came to close the club for the third time because he refused the double payment.

Rommell Kellogg was found guilty Monday in five courts of racketeering and faces up to 25 years in prison.

Johnson, who collected the money from the strip club, pleaded guilty to theft in a plea deal with prosecutors.

Eric Kellogg left office in 2019 and has not been charged with a crime, despite being named in court documents as the alleged ringleader of the scheme.

The extortion racket came to light when the FBI raided the Arnie's in 2017 after investigating the offering of illegal prostitution in a private area of ​​the club.

Agents offered the club manager immunity if he cooperated by wearing a wire and continued making the payments under FBI direction.

Payments were referred to as “pizza money” or “rent money,” like when the club owner texted the manger, “Terrible week. Rent tomorrow. This man is killing me'.

During the investigation, the club made payments totaling $37,000 between December 8, 2017 and May 3, 2018, using funds provided by the FBI.

Officers recorded hours of conversations between the manager and Johnson and sometimes Kellogg, and tapped both suspects' phones.

Johnson became frustrated with his role as bagman and discussed with the club manager, who was wearing a wire, that he wanted out.

“I'll figure something out, 'cause I'm tired of these motherfuckers, man,” he said.

“I never wanted to be there from the beginning.”

The manager asked when Kellogg was away for the arrangement to finally end and was told it would be 2019.

Arnie's Idle Hour in Harvey, Illinois, population 18,000 near Chicago, made the payments starting in 2003 so it could provide illegal prostitution services

However, Kellogg, who oversaw Johnson's collection of the extortion money, refused to leave him out of the scheme because they didn't trust anyone else.

“Corey told me he wanted to quit delivering pizzas,” he told the club manager.

“He can't come out of nowhere because that's how it goes. That's useful for me, useful for you.'

Kellogg also complained to the manager that the dancers were not discreet enough in offering prostitution, as someone had walked up to him and offered $75 for a hand job “but I'll give you everything for $225.”

“Girl didn't know me from nowhere, you know what I mean? And I tell her, 'This is not the way you're going about it,'” he said.

He said they should just offer private dancers and then the men would probably ask for sex themselves.

Kellogg was not allowed to speculate during his trial about why his brother, the mayor, was not charged, or claim he was the “real target” of the investigation.

Mayor Kellogg's other brother, former Harvey Police Supervisor Derrick Muhammad, received a nine-month prison sentence in November 2020 for covering up a felon's possession of a Uzi submachine gun.

Arnie's property was owned by Alicia Arnold and her husband until his death mid-extortion, and then by her and their son.

Arnold was charged with tax fraud in 2021 for allegedly filing false tax returns in 2012 to 2017, severely understating the club's revenues.

The club was also infamous for a 2019 shooting inside and in the parking lot that left the son of a local police officer dead and three others injured.