Royal Order of Jesters in Prostitution and Embezzlement Cases

The Royal Order of Jesters again finds itself embroiled in a situation involving prostitution, this time out of Flint, Michigan. One would think after the events a couple of years ago in New York they would be on the lookout for this kind of stuff, but alas, no.

From the All Michigan website, by reporter Mark Tower:

In a lawsuit filed June 11 in Genesee County Circuit Court by Nicholas Singelis II, the Clio-based Elf Khurafeh Shrine Temple, along with 11 members —commonly known as Shriners — are accused of allowing illegal sexual activities to take place during an initiation ceremony held Nov. 3, 2012, at the organization’s Circus Park facility in Vienna Township. 

Singelis is a former Shriner and former employee of Elf Khurafeh Shrine Temple. According to his lawsuit, Singelis was fired in March after he reported the alleged incident to leaders of both Elf Khurafeh Shrine Temple and Shriners International, the overarching arm of the more than 140-year-old fraternal organization best known for its pediatric hospitals and circuses 

The claim in the lawsuit is denied by several members and officers of the Elf Khurafeh Shrine Temple. A spokesperson for the Elf Khurafeh Shrine Temple declined to comment on the claims. 

Singelis also is a defendant in a lawsuit filed March 10 in Saginaw County Circuit Court by Elf Khurafeh Shrine Temple that alleges he was involved in embezzling money from the organization. Singelis denies the claim. 

Shriners International, in a statement released June 11, noted the organization is aware of both lawsuits and is investigating the claims.

Singelis, in his lawsuit, says he was terminated from his job as retaliation after he threatened to tell his story to “the appropriate governmental authorities.” 

He also said in the lawsuit he was told by fellow members of the Elf Khurafeh Shrine Temple to “shut his mouth,” and that he felt threatened by members of the organization. 

He said in a letter included in the lawsuit that sources told him prostitutes were hired and had sex with members of the Elf Khurafeh Shrine Temple during a Nov. 3, 2012, event.
He said he did not directly witness any acts of prostitution by the organization or its members, but said other members, as well as non-members, told him that Circus Park, where Elf Khurafeh’s offices are located, was being used for “illegal sexual activity” during a Shriner initiation ceremony. 

The lawsuit states this illegal activity involved members of The Royal Order of Jesters Court No. 74 and El Hajj Tassel No. 13, two subgroups chartered by Elf Khurafeh Shrine Temple. 

“I have received numerous complaints regarding these acts, from Nobles and non-members stating that not only is this unlawful; it is against Shrine Law,” Singelis says he wrote in a letter to former Elf Khurafeh Potentate Alan Basner, the organization’s leader. The letter is included in Singelis’ lawsuit. 

Basner denies the claims made in Singelis’ lawsuit.
Other members also deny the claims.
“In my opinion, this is just his way of trying to make us look bad,” said Ronald Huston, an Elf Khurafeh member who is named in the lawsuit. 

“It’s ridiculous. It sounds like sour grapes to me,” added Dick Bartlett, director of the Royal Order of Jesters Court No. 74, who is not named in Singelis’ lawsuit. 

More Shriners respond to accusationsIn a press release issued June 11 by Clio attorney Robert L. Swartwood, general counsel to Elf Khurafeh Shrine Temple, Swartwood states that none of the members named in Singelis' lawsuit have yet been served with notice of the lawsuit. 

"As nobody has been served in that matter to date, Elf Khurafeh Shriners cannot comment on it or the nature of any legal matter pending before the courts at this time," Swartwood wrote. 

Former Potentate and current Recorder Clarence W. Meyer Jr., who is named in Singelis’ lawsuit, declined to respond directly to the accusations, though he did say the organization intends to pursue a slander lawsuit against the former employee. 

Another longtime Jester, Donald P. Link — also named as a defendant in Singelis’ lawsuit — denied knowledge of the alleged prostitution at Royal Order of Jesters meetings or events. 

“I haven’t seen any of it,” Link said. 

Huston, a past director of The Royal Order of Jesters Court No. 74, said he has been a Jester for about 15 years. He referenced a 2005 FBI case, in which it was determined prostitutes were taken across the border into Canada for a Royal Order of Jesters national convention.

Huston said that incident gave Jesters a bad name, and resulted in very strict policies against such behavior for members and Courts across the country.
"We've done everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen," he said. "We won't tolerate it." 

State Rep. Charles Smiley, D-Burton, also is named as a defendant in Singelis’ lawsuit. He said he was never a member of the Jesters Court, but was at one time a member of El Hajj. He said he has no knowledge of the alleged prostitution and said he was not present at the Nov. 3, 2012, event at Circus Park. 

Lawsuit against SingelisThe lawsuit filed in March 2013 by the Elf Khurafeh Shrine Temple alleges that Singelis and a former potentate of the organization, Craig Hatch together embezzled and mishandle temple funds. 

Singelis' alleged embezzlement, according to several current Elf Khurafeh members and leaders, was the reason his employment was terminated.
According to the lawsuit, Singelis and Hatch improperly handled hundreds of thousands of dollars in organization funds. The complaint claims Singelis used a debit card to spend thousands of dollars of Shrine funds on “products and services that appear to have no legitimate relationship to the (association’s) fraternal or charitable activities.” 

Swartwood, in his press release, said Elf Khurafeh has an ongoing investigation into possible missing funds. Neither Singelis nor Hatch have been charged with any criminal wrongdoing in connection with those allegations. 

"The nobility and leadership of Elf Khurafeh Shriners have identified some possible improprieties in our bookkeeping procedures resulting in the discovery of certain funds not being totally accounted for," he wrote. "Due to these circumstances, our leadership has directed complete auditing of all accounts and investigation of all matters pertaining to the security of these funds." 

Saginaw County Prosecutor John McColgan said his office is investigating the embezzlement claims, but said the case might not remain with his office. 

"It's so big," McColgan said. "I think we were looking at the Attorney General or even the U.S. District Attorney taking it." 

Singelis’ attorney in the lawsuit filed against him in Saginaw County filed a “change of venue” motion in May, arguing that Saginaw County is not the appropriate jurisdiction for the lawsuit to be argued, a fact which is disputed by the organization’s attorney. 

After a change of venue hearing on May 20, the matter was taken under advisement by Circuit Court Judge James T. Borchard. According to court records, 120 days have been afforded for discovery and a case evaluation is set to be scheduled after Oct. 6, 2013. 

Singelis said he hopes, by exposing the wrongdoing he is alleging, to right any wrong he did by promoting the organization. 

"I spoke for this organization for three years," he said. 

Huston said he hopes the one thing that doesn't get lost in the legal battles yet to come is the good done by the organization and the philanthropic actions of many of its members. 

"The majority of Shriners are dedicated individuals," he said. "We've got guys who have made hundreds of trips to Chicago taking kids to the hospital there."

More Fallout from New York Royal Order of Jesters Investigation

From the Buffalo News website today, "Retired deputy sentenced for transporting prostitutes":

A retired Erie County sheriff’s deputy who transported prostitutes to an event run by the Royal Order of Jesters was sentenced to one year on probation and fined $1,000.

Michael Lesinski, 51, of Derby, pleaded guilty last year to failing to report a felony crime, the U. S. Attorney’s Office said.

In April 2005—while he was still a member of the Sheriff’s Office — Lesinski transported about six prostitutes from Buffalo Niagara International Airport to a Jesters convention in Niagara Falls, Ontario, prosecutor Robert C. Moscati said.

Lesinski’s involvement was discovered during an investigation of human trafficking crimes associated with the Jesters. The Buffalo FBI office, the U. S. Border Patrol, the Erie County Sheriff’s Office and U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted the probe.

Lesinski is the fourth public official convicted in connection with an ongoing federal investigation of the Royal Order of Jesters in Buffalo, New York. He pleaded guilty to concealing a felony last November.

For more background see also Federal Probe of Jesters Expands, and The Trouble With Jesters.

NY Cop Pleads Guilty in Ongoing Royal Order of Jesters Case

Retired sheriff's deputy Michael Lesinski is the fourth public official convicted in connection with the ongoing federal investigation of the Royal Order of Jesters in Buffalo, New York. On November 19, 2010, Lesinski pleaded guilty to concealing a felony.

From "Ex-deputy admits hiding crime" by Dan Herbeck in the Buffalo News:

Michael Lesinski, 50, of Lake View, admitted in federal court that in April 2005, he transported "approximately six or seven" prostitutes from Buffalo Niagara International Airport to a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ont., where the Jesters were having a convention.

According to court papers, Lesinski was a member of the Jesters' Buffalo chapter, which included a state judge, a former Lockport police captain and a former state court official. All previously took guilty pleas in the case.

Authorities said Lesinski, who has since retired, was still active as a road deputy at the time of the off-duty incident involving the prostitutes.

"[Lesinski] pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony, which is basically concealment of a felony crime," said Rodney O. Personius, the former deputy's lawyer.

The defense lawyer said Lesinski admits that he knew the women were prostitutes after dropping them off at the Ontario hotel, but he said Lesinski takes the position that he did not know they were prostitutes when he took them across the border into Canada.

[snip]

Lesinski is the fourth former public official to be convicted of a crime in connection with the Jesters probe, which was conducted by FBI agents and the Western New York Human Trafficking Task Force.

In August 2009, retired State Supreme Court Judge Ronald H. Tills, 74, was sentenced by Skretny to 18 months in prison after admitting that he coordinated the procurement of prostitutes for several Jesters events. Skretny called the former judge's conduct "disgraceful."

Former Lockport Police Capt. John Trowbridge was put on probation for two years after taking a guilty plea in the case, and Michael Stebick, a former Erie County prosecutor and state court law clerk, was sentenced to four years of home confinement after also pleading to a crime.

National leaders of the Jesters, a national organization affiliated with the Masons, have repeatedly said they were shocked to learn that members of the Buffalo chapter were employing prostitutes at their gatherings.

Jesters Sentenced in Prostitution Case

Not to unduly drag this story back out into the light, but the Associated Press and several New York papers are reporting it today.

From today's Niagara Gazette:

Ronald H. Tills, 74, of Hamburg, was sentenced Friday in federal court to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty last year to transporting prostitutes across state lines.

Tills is the third man to be sentenced in connection with a federal prostitution sting involving local massage parlors.

Two other defendants — retired Lockport Police Captain John Trowbridge, 62, and Tills' former law clerk, Michael Stebick, 61 — had previously been sentenced.

Trowbridge received two years’ probation, and Stebick was given four months home confinement.

The men were all members of the Royal Order of Jesters, an international fraternal society.

Tills admitted last September to violating the Mann Act by transporting prostitutes across state lines. Trowbridge pleaded guilty to transporting the woman, an illegal alien identified in court papers as “Jane Doe No. 1,” to Kentucky, to engage in prostitution with members of the Royal Order of Jesters.

As part of his plea, Tills admitted to five additional occasions of transporting a woman across state lines for prostitution.

Allegations of prostitution led the Western District’s Human Trafficking Task Force and Alliance to conduct raids on four massage parlors in Lockport, Niagara Falls, Wheatfield and Tonawanda in December 2007.

The women working at the massage parlors were illegal aliens from Asia. Nine women were rescued from the parlors, where investigators said they were being held as virtual captives.

The Buffalo News goes on to report:

So far, no charges have been filed against anyone outside the Buffalo chapter.

In May, a national spokesman for the Jesters told The Buffalo News that the presence of prostitutes at Jesters gatherings is something that only the Buffalo chapter engaged in, adding that such conduct is never condoned by the national leadership.

The all-male organization — which is a division of the Freemasons — has 191 chapters with 22,000 members, mostly in the United States. The fraternal group's members have included two U.S. presidents, politicians, entertainment figures and prominent businessmen.

Some former Jesters told The News that many Jesters chapters have engaged in wild parties with prostitutes for decades.

Tills, who previously served as a member of the State Assembly, was known by colleagues and defense attorneys as one of the region's toughest sentencing judges before he retired from his job as a state judge in 2005.

Federal Probe of Jesters Expands

The Royal Order of Jesters just can't seem to get out of hot water. Former State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Tills and two other members of the ROJ have plead guilty in Buffalo, New York in connection with organizing prostitution parties for Jesters meetings, and are awaiting sentencing. Another chapter in Big Sandy, Kentucky has been placed on probation by the national organization, and is being looked into by the feds.

A lengthy article appeared today in the Buffalo News, after reporter Dan Herbeck spent weeks seeking interviews. Many of those interviewed (myself included) echo similar sentiments—that the Jesters need to clean up their act. Officials, including Jesters' president Gary N. Martin, say that gatherings with hookers and other illegal activities are, to his knowledge, "extremely isolated," and is engaged in by "a small fraction" of their 22,000 members.

From the article:

But sources close to the investigation and former Jesters from other parts of the country tell a different story, one of bizarre activities — including routinely hiring prostitutes for gatherings, sex competitions and degrading initiation rites for new members — at many Jesters outings, with off-duty police hired to keep nonmembers away.

“I quit the Jesters more than 20 years ago, and this kind of thing has been going on at least 40 or 50 years,” said Malcolm “Mutt” Herring, 90, of Montgomery, Ala. “I quit because I don’t drink, and I don’t mess around with other women, other than my wife. Going to one of their events was like going to a whorehouse.”

None of this would be notable as far as Masonry is concerned if the Jesters were not connected to the Shrine, and the Shrine to Freemasonry. Face it. For over a hundred years, the Shrine has been the playground of Masonry, and has reveled in, and encouraged, its public image as a bunch of big-drinking, stripper-slapping, fez-wearing party animals, who engage in such behavior for the good cause of the hospitals. AND THAT'S FINE. The Shrine is what it is. But to tell a man, on the one hand, that the Shrine is one more logical step for a Freemason to take, and then, on the other hand, to bring on the hookers, absolutely flies in the face of Masonic obligations. To fill the Blue Lodge with lofty lectures of morality and virtue, then to guard the door of the Shrine with off-duty cops and tell new candidates, "What happens here stays here," is the worst kind of hypocrisy. It throws mud on Freemasonry.

Judge Tills, who faces prison time now at the age of 75, once prided himself as being one of the toughest sentencing judges in western New York state. I'd be curious how many prostitution cases came before him on the bench, and how he sentenced them. His actions—hauling hookers across state lines, and even into Canada, not once, but at least on six occasions—belies the claim that such practices within the Jesters are not widespread. The FBI has been involved since last year. And this is in addition to the story from last May about Jesters' "fishing trips" to Brazil that involved at least 19 members and hookers as young as 13.

So why haven't the Shrine's national leadership thrown the Jesters under the bus and severed ties with them? Why haven't state grand masters put the Jesters on notice, or yanked dues cards of the most offensive individuals?

No, I do not believe that 22,000 members of the Jesters condone this behavior. It may very well be that the overwhelming majority of them don't. I have known many brethren who are Jesters who would never in a million years engage in this type of behavior. But to claim that the ROJ doesn't know about this stuff on a widespread basis is sheer nonsense. They certainly look the other way. And if they didn't care about anything else, just from a mercenary point of view, they are risking their non-profit status.

I once had a friend who asked the question, "What good is it being a member of a secret society if you can't get out of traffic tickets or get serviced by a hooker with a cop watching the door for you?" If that's what a man is looking for, then the Jesters need to split from the Shrine and just go be a sex club. And if the Shrine condones it, perhaps the Shrine needs to split from Freemasonry, as well. I say that as a member of the Shrine, an organization I joined because of the work they do with their hospitals. I have noticed in the last year, my dues card no longer says I'm a member of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (the initials of which were rearranged to spell A MASON), but now of Shrine International. There have been calls for years to split from the Masonic fraternity. The Jesters are one more reason to head that direction.

A few months back, I purchased a collection of Jesters' pins off of Ebay. I didn't do it because I particularly wanted them in my home. I did it because these pins, which were created each year for the annual Jesters' national meetings, depicted the grinning Jesters' cartoon mascot, Billiken, engaged in a variety of unsavory activities—sexual, and worse, racially violent. Activities that would land Billiken into a cartoon jail. I bought the pins because I didn't want the pictures of them to show up all over the internet. I care passionately about the fraternity of Freemasonry, and when individuals throw dirt on it with their actions, they throw dirt on me too. The website of the Royal Order of Jesters proudly proclaims its connection to Masonry (In fact, the page's title says "Royal Order of Jesters - Masons, Shriners, Freemasons, Masonic Lodges, Grand Lodges"). The reporter from Buffalo called me, because he wanted to know how I felt about my brother Masons engaging in this activity. 22,000 out of 1.5 million US Masons is a small percentage, and of those 22,000 Jesters, I suspect a much smaller number of them are taking part in the "mirth." But it only takes one or two to make the national news.

I'm no prude, and I have no desire to be played by Margaret Hamilton in the movie. Frankly, I am a big proponent of making the Masonic lodge and its activities more fun, including relaxing Indiana's tintype prohibition of alcohol in Masonic buildings. A Mason shouldn't be made to feel that his lodge is some monastic cloister and that the only place he can behave like an adult and enjoy himself is the Shrine. But the Jesters are the image of the worst kind of excess, and their members either need to clean it up, or go their own way and sever the Masonic connection.

The New York case is connected to an FBI probe in human trafficking—in particular, a Chinese massage parlor that has young women kept as sex slaves. Such establishments are notorious for asking, "You want happy ending?"

Yes, I do. I want a happy ending to this whole sordid episode.

(BTW, I am quoted in the article as saying "The Masons are about family, community and faith-oriented activities that make good men better.” Mr. Herback paraphrased me. I've never in my life used the term "faith-oriented activities," and I loathe the catch phrase "we make good men better." But being misquoted goes with the territory, I suppose. And since when did I become a "co-author" of Freemasons For Dummies? Feh.)

The Trouble With Jesters

NOTE: Please take note that this article concerns events back in the year 2008. 

There has been much "who-shot-john" going on over at The Burning Taper for the last few weeks over the reporting of scandals involving the Shrine's Royal Order of Jesters. The Jesters are an invitation-only group within Shrinedom whose motto is "mirth is king," and is considered by some to be an inner circle within the organization. I'll leave you to discover the BTs blog entries on your own for the details, but there are at least two major investigations going on concerning the group involving prostitution and violation of the federal Mann Act.

On the one hand, for anyone to say they are shocked - shocked! - to discover Shriners having anything to do with prostitutes is intellectually disingenuous. Shriners, strippers and hookers have been keeping each other company for over a century. And while some of us can sit in the parlor and tsk over it being antithetical to the tenets of Freemasonry (which it is), the Babbitry of the past, combined with the Shrine's post-WWII excesses, has been institutionalized by both the Shrine and the public's perception. Lest anyone forget George Carlin's punctuating 1976 punch line, "Drink up, Shriners." Or 1960's "Bye Bye Birdie's" musical number in which a group of Shriners think a young lady straying into their dinner is the stripper for the evening. There is no wonder that a certain percentage of men who join the Shrine have specifically come looking for the Shrine they've heard about. They are looking for the secret society that has the strippers and the hookers and the county sheriff guarding the door who sees they get home okay. Not all men join the Shrine out of the altruism of helping crippled kids. I actually had a man try to sell me on Shrine membership by saying, "You can drink all night for five bucks, and besides, we un-f***-up the crippled kids!"

Something slightly less than the Masonic ideal.

After the Shrine parade in Salt Lake City on St. Patrick's day, about a dozen of us fez-wearing loud-mouths (all perfectly sober, I might add) drove to the suburbs to get their 1939 Yellowstone tour bus weighed at the local truck stop. Some Shrines get drunk and bring in the strippers. Salt Lake City guys get their bus weighed. It was bitter cold, and we drove through town acting like, well, Shriners, with the top down, yelling what we thought were zingers to pedestrians, and generally lowering the property values. You know, the stuff guys generally do as teenagers, and living up to the mission of putting some of the boy back into the man. At the truck stop, I had one of those defining moments, curiously. A man perhaps in his twenties came out and said he wanted to shake the hand of every Shriner in that bus. He had received free care from the Salt Lake Shrine Hospital as a child that had allowed him to walk.

So the Shrine is a conundrum to me. The hospitals are among the finest philanthropic missions in this country. And if they get paid for by grownups who sometimes act like high school imbeciles, well, maybe society needs to loosen its corset a bit.

On the other hand, I don't disagree with the sentiment of those who say that some of the Shrine's institutionalized excesses are at odds with Freemasonry's tenets of morality. I suspect that argument has gone on since the 1870s when the teetotalers found out the Knickerbocker boys were sopping it up in town because the Methodists threw the booze out of the lodge.

But on a larger level, these guys are living in the past. The stock 1920-50s characters of sad-faced George Babbitts, Willy Lomans and Crazy Guggenheims lined up at the bar, comparing lodge pins, pinching waitresses and sneaking out on the wife have largely passed on to the choir invisible. Such outlets of middle-class frustrations may have been a staple of the pre- and post-WWII culture, but it has not been embraced by the children of the Baby Boomers. It is arguable that men don't step out on their wives as much anymore, they just get divorced - or don't get married to begin with. Online porn and the Playboy Channel have brought voyeurism and private personal prurient gratification into the home. And STDs have helped to make the regular practice of playing rumpy-pumpy with professional girlz a less than harmless indiscretion. That hasn't stopped the business entirely, as Elliot Spitzer proved in New York by dropping 80-large to have his clock cleaned. But it's just not a wink-wink-nudge-nudge kind of activity in US society anymore. Which makes the activities of the Jesters not just un-masonic and illegal, but a sort of creepy anachronism for a group to be engaging in.

I don't have a problem with Brother Widow's Son posting the lurid details of the Jesters on his blog site. Thomas Hardy said, "If a way to the better there be, it exacts a full look at the worst." And if a clot of idiots want to drag Freemasonry into the whorehouse by association and besmirch the fraternity by whoring it up with underage girls, they need to be exposed loudly, and their local Grand Master needs to give them the Order of the Boot. I'm not a Jester, and couldn't tell you what goes on at their gatherings with any degree of certainty. But I find it especially moronic and irresponsible for the Jesters to have an online shop selling tee-shirts featuring a cartoon Jester climbing a well endowed woman and burying his face in her ample balcony, in light of the current state and federal investigations into their behavior. If nothing else, it's a little like Bruno Hauptmann leaving the ladder outside of the Lindbergh house.

I keep coming back to the same conclusion over and over. The Shrine needs to split from Freemasonry. The two groups need to go their own way. I know there has been shrieking on both sides that such a split will kill membership on both sides, but I don't agree with that anymore. Men who believe in the aims of both organizations will continue to belong to both. The Shrine will be able to draw from a larger pool of potential recruits. And if Freemasonry returns to its pre-1843 roots, the way the rest of the Masonic universe has remained, combining its tavern-hall, social origins with its Enlightenment-era philosophy of tolerance and brotherhood, the two groups will get along just fine. The rest of the Masonic world never barred alcohol from the post-lodge experience, so they never had any need to create Shrines and Grottos to begin with. Outside of the US, it's common and perfectly respectable for the Master to announce, "the lodge is closed and the bar is open." There's no need to act like idiot children because they treat Masons like adults.

On another mailing list a Mason made the remark that those who were criticizing the Jesters had

"determined the length of another Brothers Cable Tow. I didn't realize that becoming a Mason meant that Christian Morality governed the fraternity. I believe that the then King David had many Concubines and for that matter plural wives. . . Did the brothers do something that in the 20th and 21st century is considered in inappropriate? Well according to the laws of the United States yes. When I used to hire a lot of Mexican workers many of these workers claimed that they were married. These workers were usually found out to be minors and yet they had children of their own with a young woman who was underage and they claimed to be husband and wife. Some of these young people were under the age of 16, now who's morality are you going to condemn these people with..."

If ever there was an argument for the Shrine to clean up its act, or to move away from Freemasonry, it's right there, in a sociopath's relativistic defense of hiring 13 year old prostitutes to live by the motto "mirth is king."