The Gloucester Fund has begun legal action against the owner of Jazzy Joe's bar and music club to recover $2,800, the amount of a bounced check given to the fund during the outpouring of charity for tenants left homeless when their apartment building burned in December.
Fund President Barry Pett told the Times that Sonya Anderson faces a deadline of tomorrow to make good on the check or face larceny charges. The check was written to cover cash contributions to the victims raised during a charity evening of live music at the West End club on Dec. 20.
The club was closed in April by a court order obtained by a creditor.
"We have to take action," Pett said. "We have a fiduciary obligation" to the people we serve. The Gloucester Fund collects and distributes money for various local charities.
He said Anderson was served with an order by a sheriff's constable last Friday to make good on the check or face possible criminal charges for "larceny of a personal check."
Anderson, who previously told the Times she would make good on the check, could not be reached yesterday. A recorded message on her cell phone said it was no longer receiving calls, and her lawyer, Carl Stammen, did not return calls.
Pett told the Times the bad check was included in a bundle of personal checks delivered to the fund in late December that were made out to Jazzy Joe's and The Gloucester Fund and totaled $8,400.
Pett said Jazzy Joe's "apparently took the cash they collected and deposited it into a bank account," and later wrote a check to the fund to cover the cash deposits. But by the time the fund attempted to cash it, the amount in the account had been depleted, and the check bounced.
Late on Dec. 14, fire broke out in the 98-year-old wood frame Lorraine Apartments building on Middle Street, and rapidly took down the four-story structure. All but one of the 26 tenants fled safely. Robert Taylor, who lived on the third floor, died in the fire.
In the aftermath came an outpouring of support, including $46,000 in cash, plus clothing, furniture and other living materials, which were gathered and redistributed to the victims by the Gloucester Fund, the Red Cross and Action Inc.
Pett said the Gloucester Fund, which distributes all of its proceeds, considers the bad check a debt it owes to the fire's victims. But he added he despaired at the likelihood of collecting the money because "there's nothing to get."
Anderson faces a June 10 deadline set by the Licensing Board to settle with her many creditors and regain use of the club's liquor license or lose it. The license would be auctioned off to pay creditors.
Jazzy Joe's was closed in April by court order on the motion of Anderson's former lawyer, Patricia Johnstone, who sued for more than $6,400 in legal fees for writing the lease with the owners of the 84 Main St. building, where they operated Jalepeno's restaurant next door.
The bar equipment, pool table and decorations were seized along with the liquor license and held for possible auction in the event Anderson failed to settle with Johnstone and a bevy of other creditors, including a vending company, which says it is owed more than $60,000.
Compounding Anderson's difficulties is a failure to pay rent that led to a court order terminating her lease. Anderson has said she intends to countersue the landlords.
In addition, a former friend, Laverne Saputo, has obtained a default judgment of $148,952 against Anderson for defaulting on a loan that Saputo secured with a second mortgage on her home.
Nearly a year after the transaction Anderson initiated to borrow the money needed to buy the liquor license and open Jazzy Joe's, Saputo was notified by Wallace Financial that Anderson had not been paying the loan, moving the lender to begin foreclosure proceedings against Saputo.
Last week, the Licensing Board gave Anderson until June 10 to settle her debts and reopen Jazzy Joe's or lose the license. Board Chairman Edward Pasquina said the board would auction the license, valued at an estimated $100,000 based on recent sales, to pay off debts accumulated by Anderson and her partner Joseph Foley since the club opened in 2005.
Anderson told the board she was using Robert Lockwood, a Beverly lender and workout specialist, to extricate herself from the debts. "The goal is to pay off all creditors in two weeks," she told the board that had summoned her to address the debts that forced the closing of the doors to Jazzy Joe's in April.
But last week she said she had decided against using Lockwood and Lockwood told the Times he was not interested in working with her. Lockwood was identified in a television news report as among the state's notorious tax delinquents.
Richard Gaines can be reached at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com.
