Rockford Hard Rock Investor Denied Gaming License Over Shooting Incident
A prominent Rockford, Ill. restaurateur and investor inwards the city’s forthcoming Hard Rock Casino was denied a cassino provider certify because of a prior shot incident, the Rockford Register Star reports.
Joseph Castrogiovanni, 69, owns Giovanni’s Restaurant and Convention Center inward Rockford. The programme is to enthrone $8 trillion to transubstantiate Castrogiovanni’s edifice into a 37,790-square-foot temporary gambling casino housing 736 one-armed bandit machines patch the main casino is being built.
But inwards April, Castrogiovanni was snubbed past the IL Gaming Commission because of unspecified “conduct and associations that would jeopardize the unity of gaming and discredit, or lean to discredit, the country and Land of Lincoln gaming.”
The conclusion caused perplexity in Rockford, where Castrogiovanni is considered to be of upright type and a pillar of the community.
His lawyer, Michael Iasparro, wrote inward documents filed with the Illinois Gaming Board that Castrogiovanni has for decades “served on numerous non-profit-making and kindly boards, has tirelessly supported law of nature enforcement, and has run for a successful eating place and feast business.
“The proposition that Mr. Castrogiovanni is unsuitable for licensure is altogether inconsistent with the part of the man,” he added.
Trigger Happy Restaurateur
Now, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act call for lodged with the Ogle County Sheriff’s Department, the Register Star has been able to fill in the blanks.
It appears that last-place July, 2 men looking for house party accidentally found themselves driving knock down the half-mile driveway leading to the Castrogiovanni family’s buck private residence.
Castrogovianni was alerted to their front by his certificate system and went come out to encounter them armed with a loaded 9mm Sig Sauer handgun, according to the constabulary report.
One of the vehicle’s occupants told police force he began to vagabond knock down the window to ask whether there was a political party going on at the house. But before he could speak, he was met with a “What the f— are you doing?” and gunfire.
The men backed up and sped away, later calling police from a gaseous state place inward Rockford.
Castrogiovanni also told the police force around the incident, claiming he had intended to flaming warning shots into the broadcast because of “a reasonable awe for his and his wife’s safety.” But i of the bullets had perforate a parent rider door and ended up inwards the sack on the rearwards of the face rider seat.
Reckless Conduct
Castrogiovanni was supercharged with infringement reckless conduct, but it was his loser to report the incident to the gaming get on for a unit month that sunk his permission application.
He has since requested a auditory sense with the regulator where he will endeavour to “clear his unspoilt public figure and impeccable reputation.”
In the meantime, Castrogiovanni testament experience to bidding goodbye to his wager inwards 815 Entertainment, the troupe naturalized to combine Hard John Rock International with local investors.
The permission refusal has also triggered clauses that will tolerate 815 Entertainment to acquire Giovanni’s, along with Castrogiovannis’ stakes inwards the company.
Developers said in April they envisage no disruption to the casino timeline.