Bellefeuille sat down at the computer and, with Lewis looking over his shoulder, went to work. In the report Bellefeuille claimed to have video surveillance and photographs of Creedon in the act. (He had neither.) He wrote about Nicole, and Anne Marie Hanson, and, for good measure, Kristina Lewis. He claimed to have observed Karla and Jill entering and leaving the property. The last page of the report listed the addresses of the state attorney's office, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, TV and newspaper reporters, and management at the Stanwich Club and a country club in Palm Beach Gardens. The message was clear.
Lewis and Bellefeuille agreed they had to get the girls and their parents involved in order for the scheme to work. They met Karla's mother at a restaurant in Juno Beach. They said lawyers on both sides were talking, that they were working to get her some money, that none of this would have to go to court. Karla and her mother, it was agreed, would get $25,000. No mention was made of the $350,000 total. Prosecutors later informed Karla's mother that Lewis had intended to get three times more than that for herself and that Bellefeuille and Dominick Amento, a lawyer friend of his who'd gotten involved, would get far more than that.
"In other words my daughter and I have been scammed?" she asked the investigator from the state attorney's office shortly after the whole scheme had unraveled. "Scammed and promised money so that your daughter wouldn't report the fact that she'd been sexually abused by a man who was, in a way, also set up," came the reply. "They were throwing you dog bones."
Jill too was approached. Initially Lewis told her they could leave her dad out of it. If she kept it real quiet, she could walk away with $500 or $1000. That number increased dramatically, to $15,000, after Lewis decided it would be a better idea to get Jill's father involved. Investigators believe neither family had any idea what was really going on. "This whole thing was presented as a sort of package deal," says Palm Beach County Chief Assistant State Attorney Paul Zacks. "They were told to sign at the X and they'd get a certain amount of money. They were convinced it was the only option."
In the end the numbers bandied about amounted to little more than false promises. The scheme came apart as quickly as it had come together. Lewis and Bellefeuille vastly underestimated the man who seemed so clearly in their sights. Rather than pay to bury the whole sordid affair, Creedon, within hours of realizing he was being blackmailed, phoned his attorney. Mark Boyd contacted a colleague, prominent Fort Lauderdale criminal attorney David Bogenschutz, who called an old friend, Chief Assistant State Attorney Paul Zacks, who told him he could work some sort of deal if Creedon came clean. "I really, really screwed up by underestimating this son of a bitch," Bellefeuille later told investigators.
On Christmas Eve it became clear that Mike Creedon was not playing around. Someone from the Florida Department of Children and Family Services came to Lewis' home and threatened to take away her children. An anonymous caller had reported her children were abused and neglected. Lewis was able to stave off the investigator, though not long after that Lewis, her husband, Bellefeuille, and Amento, were all arrested, charged with attempted extortion and failure to report child abuse. Creedon too was taken into custody. All five posted bail, and in the end only Amento decided to fight the charges. Though none of his accomplices wound up getting any jail time, a guilty plea would mean disbarment. His trial is expected to begin in May. "There were at least six people who could have gone to the police about Creedon," says Zacks. "The irony is that nothing came out until Creedon himself came forward."
For his part Creedon says he's disappointed his tormenters got off so easy. Reached by telephone late last month at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, he expressed relief that the whole thing is finally over. Pressed to explain himself, Creedon claimed he never fondled Jill or Karla, though he told investigators a very different story when questioned in December 1997.
"Did anything occur with either one of these two girls of a sexual nature?" he had been asked.
"Yeah, with [Karla] it did," he replied. "One morning I got up 'cause she was helping me get dressed for the day, and I got an erection and I asked her to play with me." Creedon also told investigators Jill had offered to make love with her boyfriend and let him watch.
"And did they do that?" the investigator asked.
"No, no.... I wasn't interested in that..., but Kristina said that she would do a girl-on-girl show with [Jill]."
"And did that occur?"
"Yeah, that occurred."
Creedon still has a staff of four or five who attend to him in his waking hours. "I'm much more careful who I deal with now," he said, explaining how he has had his lawyers run background checks on all of the women in his employ. "That whole thing was a scary experience," he said. "I never would have paid them, though. If you pay once, you wind up paying for the rest of your life."
Contact Jay Cheshes at his e-mail address: Jay_Cheshes@newtimesbpb.com
