Attorney Jessica Koester said the charges were part of “a Machiavellian scheme.”
In December of 2021, performer Mariah Candy was charged with three counts of the Class 1 felony of criminal sexual assault and three counts of Class 2 felony of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. The accuser was her stepson, and according to court documents, the incidents occurred between Aug. 1, 2014, when he was 14, and ended May 31, 2018.
Candy has fiercely denied the allegations, saying they were part of a revenge plot.
Last week, the State of Illinois dropped all sex-related charges in a plea deal where Candy would agree to a non-sex-related charge. In a statement, Candy’s Attorney, Jessica Koester, said that she 100% believed her client was innocent, and that she fought tooth and nail to clear her name, but due to the risk and cost of a trail, she had to recommend Candy accept a plea deal.
Koester went on to say that Candy is not a sex offender, as is evidenced by the fact that all of the sex offenses were dismissed and she is not required to register. Koester said Candy is the victim of “a Machiavellian scheme.”
Diamond De Luxe had never heard of Patrick Manary before he angrily commented on her post.
If you’re just joining us, Patrick Manary and boyfriend Nathan Stickel were banned from the Grey Fox after a now-infamous racial incident in 2022. Since then, they’ve harassed the entire 3700 block of Potomac, which is bookended by Grey Fox and my home, by wailing on the horn in the middle of the night and shouting “Stop harassing me!” at anyone who comes outside to see what’s going on.
Manary has a pattern of picking community members, seemingly at random, and sending them irate late-night messages in which he accuses them of all sorts of things, threatens to sue them and to report them to the authorities. His recent targets include Mike Campise and India Ferguson.
Patrick Manary and Nathan Stickel crashing my birthday party in 2022.
At 1:00am this morning, it was entertainer Diamond De Luxe’s turn. It seems Manary was triggered by her sharing the article about the Roast of Grey Fox, which he and Stickel believe is about them.
There are decent arguments for ignoring these tiresome trolls, but if we’re going to endure this long-running harassment as a community, we should at least document it, and share a few laughs.
You get the gist. And now, they’re calling for a boycott.
By the looks of last night’s show, Grey Fox is doing just fine.
Manna Steticçc Highland performs to a packed house on March 7
Mark Erney, shown in a 2012 mugshot, again faces criminal charges. Courtesy of St. Louis Police
Just days after the news broke that he and an associate were indicted for defrauding their employer, Sam’s Steakhouse, out of 1.4 million, Mark Erney decided to make the Sunday Funday rounds at local gay bars. It didn’t go well.
It all started when Bastille Manager Jeff Wicker took to the mic and said, “We believe in innocence until proven guilty, but you ain’t using a credit card at this establishment.” In response, Erney posted to Facebook: Soulard Bastille will always be trash. Lies, fake, rude, and simply everyone’s last choice.
Just John is the epicenter of the Sunday Funday scene. Photo: Facebook.
Sunday also may have been Erney’s last visit to Just John. On Sunday, co-owner John O Arnold posted: I will never stand behind or support a thief. The LGBTQ community deserves better. Arnold followed up with another post on Monday: Since Mark Erney is out there bad mouthing other LGBTQIA bars and seems to have zero remorse for what he has done, Just John has decided to ban him. While other bars seem to embrace him, we do NOT. We think what he has done over the years has been despicable and should not be celebrated.
Soulard Bastille then confirmed that Erney is banned from there as well.
Krista Versace – Photo by Kristofer Reynolds
The anger towards Erney runs deep in the community, going back to his 2014 guilty plea for embezzling money from the first Hamburger Mary’s in town. Performer Krista Versace posted: Finally, Mark Erney gets what he deserves. He stole from Hamburger Mary’s. He stole from his family and some of you people in the gay community stood by him and were friends. Shame on you MF!
In most cities, people who have been disgraced will move along to the next town, but St. Louis is where the disgraced stay in place. We generally forgive and move on over time. Even still, talking bad about a bar is one way to earn a slew of enemies, as evidenced by the fiery comments on several bar pages.
Perhaps the ill-fated Sunday tour was an attempt at a charm offensive. Mark Erney may be prolific at stealing many things, but hearts aren’t among them.
Nathan Stickle, pictured here after a 2023 arrest for stealing electricity.
Haters can cause monumental problems. Our half dozen have coalesced and matastasized into a tumor of tediousness. But they can still come in useful at times. For instance, I didn’t realize that my website went down today until local vagrant Nathan Stickle trolled me about it.
Nobody follows you like haters, but it’s comforting that even garbage humans with no redeeming value can somehow manage to be useful. Useful idiots.
On Sunday, I sat with mourners at Bastille to hear their stories about Chuck Parrino Jr., and to discuss the harrowing events of the past few days. Bastille is an “off the record” kind of place, where few want to be quoted or see their name in print, but I was honored that they were willing to talk with me during this devastating time.
When the always-prompt Parrino didn’t show up to Bastille for his Friday evening shift, coworkers and friends feared the worst. Still haunted by the 2018 murder of beloved bartender Peyton Keene, who was gunned down right outside, there was a sense of urgency to make sure they did all they could to avoid losing another one of their own.
Only two weeks earlier, Parrino had told his coworkers he needed to file for a protective order against his ex-boyfriend, Jerald Stilts. Stilts had been sitting in his car outside of Bastille during Parrino’s shifts. He’d called the bar and Parrino’s friends asking about him, and Parrino told coworkers Stilts had been parking outside of his new Bohemian Hill apartment, leading Parrino to install multiple cameras.
Close friend and coworker Jay Thurman recalled Stilts calling Parrino a dozen times in a row. “He was very stalkerish, controlling and insecure,” Thurman said of Stilts. “He’d come to the bar and do things to try to get under Chuck’s skin. After seeing Chuck talk to someone new at the bar, Jerry contacted the man to tell him to back off. One night, Jerry left a few hours earlier, but Chuck suspected he was close by watching. I walked him to his car, and sure enough, Jerry was parked right behind him.”
Stilts was no longer welcome at the bar because of his obsessive behavior. Bartenders would yell at him to get out.
On Friday, the conversation at Bastille kept coming back to Stilts. “I’m calling Jerry,” friend Lisa West said, but a bartender advised her against it. “If Chuck had something else going on, we didn’t want to cause more problems by involving Jerry,” West said. West had known Stilts for many years, and had regularly gone out to eat with him and his late partner, who died of cancer in 2022. Several onetime friends of the 57-year-old Stits, mostly from Illinois, said he was a very different person when he was with his late partner, who he had been with since his twenties. “All these years I knew him he hated the bars, he hated the gay scene,” said a longtime friend who asked not to be named. “I just don’t know what happened to him in these last few months.”
On Saturday morning, a group of regulars went to Bastille to discuss the situation. Thurman, unaware that Chuck was missing, texted him at 12:30 pm asking if he wanted to hang out, and then saw a Facebook post about his disappearance. “That’s not like him. I couldn’t wait, I went to his house and pounded on the door and walked around the building. I went to places he frequented. I called hospitals.”
Everyone at the bar was beside themselves with anxiety. Unable to focus, the manager threw up his hands and said, “I’ve got to go.” The manager left his regulars to look after the bar and he went in search of him. A regular told West, “They need to look in that hangar,” in reference to Stilts’ barn, which housed farm equipment. The patron said Stilts had told him that he loved Parrino so much that he might kill him and bury him in the hangar.
Shortly after 4:00 pm Saturday, the same bartender who had advised West not to call Stilts pulled her into Bastille’s kitchen. “Call him,” he said. When Stilts answered, West simply asked, “Where’s Chuck?.”
“Jerry was crying and he seemed nervous. He said to check the casinos,” West said.
Numerous members of the community were searching online and monitoring the police blotter, and then, at around 6:00 pm Saturday, news that the coroner was at Stits’ property swept through the bar, igniting wails of horror and grief, as patrons and employees wept and cried out.
On Sunday, the bar posted a message to Stilts on their Facebook page, including his mugshot. “On behalf of everyone at Bastille, we hope you rot in hell!”
Friends describe Parrino as a handsome, fun and lovable guy who lived life to the fullest and had a good sense of humor. After coworkers compared him to a Keebler elf, for instance, he dressed as one for Halloween.
Parrino’s Funeral Service will be held Sunday at 10 am at Schrader Funeral Home, 14960 Manchester Rd, Ballwin, MO. 63011.
Bastille will have a celebration for Parrino following his funeral. Parrino’s family, who came in from Texas, will be in attendance, and the bar has set up a gofundme for them.
The Network/La Red’s 24-hour hotline provides confidential emotional support, information, referrals, safety planning, and crisis intervention for gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer and/or transgender folks. 1-800-832-1901
