Photo By John HoffIrene Thomas, a stripper formerly employed at Sugar Daddy's in St. Cloud, was a key witness in the Universal Mortgage fraud case, yet another one of those white-collar criminal fiascos which have hit North Minneapolis hard, causing vacancies and foreclosures. Both Marlon Pratt and Donald Walthall went to prison in this case, click here for a related story. Thomas--a professional stripper and sometimes "model"-- was a "straw buyer" whose credit was used to purchase multiple houses.
About a week ago, I was passing through St. Cloud in the company of Jordan Neighborhood super-volunteer Megan Goodmundson. Recognizing the "Sugar Daddy's" establishment from the name and location, we spontaneously stopped by to see if it might be possible to interview Irene Thomas...
It was an hour before the place was supposed to be open, but the front door was unlocked and we went inside, where we spoke to a man who identified himself as "T.J." the manager. According to T.J., Irene Thomas hasn't worked at Sugar Daddy's in "about a year." T.J. said the word was Thomas had "left the state." T.J. said if any of "the girls" had heard from Irene, he would know, since the business is "like a little family."
T.J. also stated, emphatically, that he runs a clean and legal establishment and the owners do not care for anything with even a hint of possible illegality. I left him my contact information and asked if he heard from Irene Thomas, to please pass on my interview request. An email to an email address known to belong to Irene Thomas went unanswered.
(Blog post by John Hoff, from a soul food bistro in Lake Charles, Louisiana)
1 comment:
Looks like she has a MySpace page that she checked a few weeks ago:
http://www.myspace.com/msit1hotmodel
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