CHICAGO CARLESS

Many have emailed me to ask if I am still covering the Gary Kimmel scandal. You may remember it as the case of Marina City’s alleged pimp dentist that brought unwanted attention to the towers in 2006.

I haven’t been following the story closely lately, but my good friends over at Marina City Online have. They are reporting today that, as many have long suspected would happen, Kimmel, a former corncob towers condo board member, pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of money laundering in connection with a national prostitution ring operated out of several of Kimmel’s Marina City apartments.

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A quick posting for the Gary Kimmel Scandal followers among you. Chicago Magazine’s October 2006 article on Gary Kimmel, containing several quotes from Yours Truly and lots of, um, enlightening background information on the erstwhile dentist, can now be read for free, in its entirety, on the Chicago Magazine website, at this link.

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[(October 5, 2006) Update: Now you can read Chicago Magazine's article on Gary Kimmel for free on their website, here.]

Kimmelgate has officially hit the fan, and score one for the blogosphere. The October issue of Chicago Magazine, hitting newsstands now, features a lengthy, scathing profile of Marina City’s alleged “pimp dentist”, Gary Kimmel (p108, “The strange tale of the dentist and the pimps”)–with several quotes from Yours Truly.

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(Credit: Carol E. Sandgren.)

A surprise development in the Gary Kimmel hooker scandal, the Marina City story that just keeps on giving. As reported in the Chicago Tribune (here and here), on Tuesday one 35-year-old Jody Spears was indicted in federal court on charges of sex trafficking involving minors as young as 14 years old. According to an FBI affidavit revealed in U.S. District Court, Spears is quoted as saying, “Some of my best girls were minors.” Spears is also identified as a “business partner” with none other than indicted Marina City dentist Gary S. Kimmel. Figure that, huh?

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You knew it had to happen. After a year of growing discontent with the current notorious state of affairs at Marina City, late last month a group of Marina City resident-owners filed suit against the condominium association for the twin 60-story corncob towers overlooking State Street and the Chicago River. The seven owners, most of whom tried unsuccessfully to win seats on the Marina Towers Condominium Association board at its election last April, allege that the current voting proxy system in use by the condo board effectively disenfranchises resident owners, thereby “undermining” the intent of the Illinois Condominium Property Act.

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At the July 18 status hearing and notice of motion for Marina City’s most famous dentist, Gary S. Kimmel, the good doctor was granted a request to travel, but he and his attorney, Joseph Lopez, were reminded to mind the “restrictions”. These were not specified, but it’s probably safe to assume that they include “don’t leave the country”. The saga was continued to September. Does that mean a deal is in the works? Other names might be named? One can only speculate. Well that’s not true. There’s something else one can do, and that’s…

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(Photo credit: Looper).

If you’ve lived in one Chicago high-rise, you’ve lived in them all? Not by a longshot. While residents of Marina City allege deeply entrenched condo board mismanagement in the wake of board member Gary S. Kimmel’s federal indictment on prostitution-related money-laundering charges, the situation couldn’t be more different for residents of Chicago’s other midcentury modernist residential skyscraper: the John Hancock Center.

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