By Greg Grisolano

ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com

Personal expenses including utility bills, cable service, car insurance and a three-week stay at a Holiday Inn are among the things for which a Joplin promoter paid using money he received from vendors who thought they were paying deposits for booth space at concerts and conventions, court records show.

All told, Derrick Gates, 29, received more than $29,500 this year from more than 70 vendors looking to participate in three events, according to court records. The events were Godstock, a Christian music festival that was supposed to take place in September in Joplin but was canceled; Battle for the Mic, a rap concert in Kansas City, Kan., that was canceled; and the Ink Deep Tattoo and Piercing Convention, which was supposed to take place Dec. 14-16 in Kansas City, Mo., but was called off.

Gates and two co-defendants, Josh Allen, 26, of Carl Junction, and Zachary Grimm, 22, of Joplin, are being sued by the state in Jasper County Circuit Court for alleged fraud after several vendors said Gates failed to refund their money. Gates also was cited in the complaint for allegedly failing to register one of his production companies with the secretary of state, and for allegedly using an alias, Derrick Badders, to solicit funds for his events.

Gates did not return several messages seeking comment, but records he submitted to the court show that he spent $21,626 from January to August, including just less than $8,100 on Web site maintenance, fliers and promotional trips for Godstock and Ink Deep.

Gates’ affidavit shows he also was spending $150 to $300 per month for cellular telephones, $500 to $700 per month on car payments and insurance, and anywhere from $35 to $120 each on gas, electric, water and trash service per month.

Gates’ claim that he spent about $1,260 to stay at a local Holiday Inn for more than 21 days this summer because his “house was not ready” stunned some of the vendors who paid their deposits during that month.

“That’s about the time I gave him my money,” said Shane Yerington, an owner of Sling-N-Ink tattoo shop in Joplin.

A former landlord who sued Gates and his wife, Nena, said the couple were staying in a rental home at that time but had not paid rent for June or July.

Claudia Rousseau said it wasn’t until the end of July that the couple moved into the Holiday Inn, after law enforcement served them with an eviction notice.

“We filed against them on July 3,” said Rousseau, of Grove, Okla., who along with her husband, Douglas, rented the property to the Gateses. “We received the judgment on July 23. Sheriff’s deputies had to come with us to evict them. They kept stalling and wouldn’t move out without assistance.”

Rousseau said Gates signed a lease on April 10, and that his records indicating that he paid $525 for rent and a $300 deposit are accurate, although she said she didn’t believe he paid for any utilities while he was staying there.

“They never turned utilities over in their name,” she said. “They kept saying they couldn’t change the utilities over because of a prior balance.”

Assets and debts

Although more than $7,800 remains unaccounted for by the figures Gates has submitted, he claimed that his assets are only about $600: a $200 laptop computer, about $300 in clothes and a $100 leather coat. The affidavit states that Gates claims not to have either a checking or savings account.

“Where’s the rest of the money?” Yerington said. “It should have been in the bank for the show, and to bring in other people.”

Gates also claimed to have more than $21,000 in debts, citing $11,638 in back child support owed and a loan of $9,500 on a Jeep Cherokee he said he no longer possesses.

The documents detailing Gates’ financial matters, including a list of how he spent the funds and from whom he received money, are part of a lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon.

Allen was an employee of HardNox Productions LLC, Gates’ company that was promoting the tattoo event. Allen is scheduled to appear in court at 9 a.m. Thursday for a hearing on a preliminary injunction. He could not be reached for comment.

Grimm has previously told the Globe that he was just a vendor who was helping out with the festival. He has been ordered to submit to the court a similar accounting of all funds he received and how he spent them by close of business on Wednesday.

Money owed

Some of the vendors contacted by the Globe said they are owed more money than Gates reported.

Bernice Regina, shop manager for Grinn and Barrett Tattoo Studio in Omaha, Neb., said her company sent Gates a business check for $600 to reserve booth space in the Chicago Ink Deep convention that Gates said he was planning for early April.

“It was sent on Nov. 11,” she said. “We made it out to Josh Allen.”

Tony Schnobrich, of St. Cloud, Minn., owner of Snobrik Cartoons, said he paid Gates $350 in the spring to participate in Godstock’s originally scheduled show in June.

“They took my money right up before the show,” Schnobrich said.

The attorney general’s office has received more than a dozen complaints from 10 states and Canada against Gates and Grimm, and Gates’ production companies, OnFire Productions and HardNox Productions.

Because the fraud suit is civil rather than criminal, the penalties being sought are injunctive relief and restitution, not jail time.

Gates is still under investigation by the Joplin Police Department for possible criminal charges, and Yerington and other vendors said they hope additional charges will be filed.

“I think it needs to go criminal,” Yerington said. “If he’s spending all the money on his own bills, it looks like he was ripping us off. He used our money to survive.”





Restrained



Derrick Gates, Josh Allen and Zachary Grimm are under temporary restraining orders that freeze their personal and professional assets, and require them to post a $200,000 bond with the court before they can promote or accept money for any event.