VENTURA : Bar Owner Pleads Guilty to Bad Checks
The owner of an Oxnard topless bar pleaded guilty Thursday in Ventura County Superior Court to four felony charges of writing bad checks.
John Gray originally was charged with 10 counts of writing bad checks totaling more than $16,000, but six counts were dismissed in exchange for his plea. Many of the checks were used to pay contractors working on Gray’s Spearmint Rhino Club.
Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell also ordered Gray to make good on all 10 checks.
“This is great,” said Richard Eldridge, who did carpentry work at the club. “He’s been avoiding me for three years.”
Gray owes Eldridge almost $2,500, Eldridge said.
Gray faces up to five years and eight months in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 21. But Campbell said Thursday that he would probably sentence Gray to jail and probation.
Gray and his attorney, John Weston, declined to comment after the court proceedings. Before Gray entered his plea, Weston asked the judge to bar cameras from the courtroom, citing the circus atmosphere of the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial.
“I think that case may be more notorious than this one,” Campbell said, and allowed the cameras.
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