Local Restaurateur Held in Spain on FBI Request

EXPANDED SPORTS COVERAGE SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE Questions? Call 1-800-Tribune Thursday, January 3, 2019 Breaking news at chicagotribune.com BETRAYED Serial pedophile’s career at CPS a series of 2nd chances at age 81 of heart failure at together the first full pic- New info shows how now-dead Big Muddy Correctional ture of how Hacker found a teacher evaded detection in decade Center. job at CPS in 1970 despite a His time working in Chi- criminal record and re- By David Jackson young as 10 and 11 from the cago Public Schools, howev- mained a teacher for a Chicago Tribune 1960s through the 1980s. er, has remained largely decade even after red flags Those institutions have hidden, with the district emerged about his behavior. By his own admission, been held accountable in releasing scant information Hacker himself described serial pedophile Thomas lawsuits and news reports and even, at one point, not just his compulsion and Hacker sexually abused for their child protection denying he ever worked rituals, but also the second hundreds of children in failures. And Hacker him- there. chances he was given. Illinois and Indiana, ex- self was held accountable Using Hacker’s own testi- After a CPS student ac- ploiting his leadership roles too, ordered to serve a mony in depositions he gave cused Hacker of inappro- in the Boy Scouts, Catholic 100-year sentence for sexu- at Big Muddy, additional priate conduct, a school churches and suburban ally assaulting an 11-year- public records and person- administrator said “he’ll BURBANK POLICE DEPARTMENT Chicago Park District pro- old Boy Scout from a subur- nel files obtained through a Thomas Hacker taught at Chicago Public Schools from grams to prey on boys as ban troop. He died in June source, the Tribune pieced Turn to Teacher, Page 6 1970 through 1980 despite a criminal record and red flags. Emotions build over building’s future Puerto Rican hub in Humboldt Park to be sold to developer By Morgan Greene Chicago Tribune Humboldt Park residents who might have passed through Casa Puertorriquena during the holi- days for a children’s Christmas giveaway or a Three Kings’ Day celebration will be out of luck next season. In the new year, the beloved community center and longtime home of the Puerto Rican Parade Committee will be saying goodbye to the old — and possibly welcoming new tenants. The building, at 1237 N. Cali- fornia Ave., is expected to be sold to the Hispanic Housing Devel- ANTONIO PEREZ/CHICAGO TRIBUNE opment Corp., which plans to Prosecutors say that Attila Gyulai, right, seen here with chef Thai Dang in late 2012, misappropriated at least $300,000 in company money. build affordable housing units at the site. Some local politicians and community members are happy to keep upscale condo developers at bay and say they will work to keep Local restaurateur held the building a community hub. But no one seems to know what’s in store for the nonprofit parade committee, which organizes the popular downtown parade and summer Humboldt Park festival. in Spain on FBI request The sale follows years of trans- ferred mortgages, committee in- fighting, bankruptcy court hear- Former owner of Embeya in West Loop arrested year after federal fraud charges ings and investigations into the committee by police and the By Joseph Hernandez The arrest comes nearly a year In February 2018, federal pros- “It gives me a Illinois attorney general’s office. and Louisa Chu after Gyulai was charged with ecutors charged Gyulai with wire Miguel Santiago, a member of Chicago Tribune misappropriating at least fraud, alleging he had misappro- little hope that the the Jeep Club, a community or- $300,000 from partners and 2½ priated at least $300,000 “by ganization, said he doesn’t think Attila Gyulai, who fled the years after he closed the restau- means of materially false and bad guys don’t the building should have been country after his West Loop rant while blaming family obliga- fraudulent pretenses, representa- sold. restaurant, Embeya, was shutter- tions and the demands of running tions and promises,” according to always get away “I hear from a lot of older guys, ed amid a fraud scandal, has been a restaurant. Yet Gyulai had been an affidavit filed by the FBI. Gyulai they’ve been around here forever,” arrested in Spain, according to looting money since before the and his wife, Komal Patel, fled the with everything.” Santiago said. “A lot of them will Spanish newspaper Las Provin- restaurant opened, according to cias. charges. Turn to Gyulai, Page 7 — Danielle Dang Turn to Sale, Page 7 Editorial: Even one killing is too many Neither side budges Though 2018 was less bloody, with fewer reports of homicides and people shot, every shooting on funding of wall death is terrible. Making the streets safer will require efforts to Trump: Partial cratic leader Nancy Pelosi said improve policing, reduce access outside the White House that to illegal guns, keep offenders in shutdown will last there would be rapid passage of jail and provide more job ‘as long as it takes’ legislation to reopen the govern- ment — without funds for the opportunities to residents. By Lisa Mascaro Page 17 border wall. But the White House and Catherine Lucey has rejected that package, and Associated Press Trump said ahead of the session with the congressional leaders WASHINGTON — No one that the partial shutdown will last ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ budged at President Donald “as long as it takes” to get the Trump’s White House meeting funding he wants. A six-hour docuseries on the R&B with congressional leaders “Could be a long time or could star and Chicago native is set to Wednesday, so the partial govern- be quickly,” Trump said during premiere Thursday on Lifetime. ment shutdown persisted through comments at a Cabinet meeting at The series traces the rise and fall a 12th day over his demand for the White House, his first public of Kelly amid new allegations of billions of dollars to build a wall appearance of the new year. predatory behavior on young along the U.S. border with Mexico. Meanwhile, the shutdown women. Much of the focus is on They’ll try again Friday. dragged through a second week, his 2008 trial, where he was In one big change, the new closing some parks and leaving found not guilty of 14 child EVAN VUCCI/AP Congress convenes Thursday hundreds of thousands of federal pornography charges. President Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting Wednesday at with Democrats taking majority A+E, Page 1 the White House — his first appearance of the new year. control of the House, and Demo- Turn to Shutdown, Page 15 Chicago Weather Center: Complete $2.50 city and suburbs, $3.00 elsewhere Tom Skilling’s forecast High 38 Low 29 forecast on back page of A+E section 171st year No. 3 © Chicago Tribune 2 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Thursday, January 3, 2019 ABEL URIBE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE Peter Isely talks about the need to hold the Catholic Church accountable at a protest Wednesday outside the Archdiocese of Chicago’s offices. With him is Patricia Gallagher Marchant, who said she was abused in Wisconsin in 1965. Victims slam Catholic church Rex Huppke as bishops meet in Mundelein and John Kass have the day off By Jeff Karoub The retreat is a prelude to letter to bishops around the Activists in Chicago were Associated Press a summit of the world’s world warning that a failure looking ahead to the Febru- bishops at the Vatican next to deal with abuse now will ary summit at the Vatican, TO OUR READERS As U.S.-based Roman month to forge a compre- jeopardize the church’s where the church’s ongoing Catholic bishops gathered in hensive response to the mission globally. It also sexual abuse crisis is ex- While we are still working to correct lingering print produc- suburban Mundelein for a crisis that has lashed the urged summit attendees to pected to be discussed. The tion problems, we have been able to resume publication of weeklong retreat, activists church. meet with clergy sexual activists are calling for vic- most paid death notices and legal advertisements. We Wednesday in Chicago The meetings follow two abuse victims “to learn first- tims to be more involved in expect to restore full service in the coming days and return stood outside the Archdio- blistering reports during hand the suffering they the meetings and have been to standard layout and formatting. Please visit us online at cese of Chicago’s head- 2018 from state attorneys have endured.” critical of Cupich’s involve- www.chicagotribune.com to read all our content and to quarters to slam church general — in Illinois and ment in the summit in light access all services as we complete the restoration process. leadership for its handling of Pennsylvania — alleging What can it accomplish? of the scathing report from sexual abuse investigations. negligence by state church Potentially a good deal, Illinois Attorney General The bishops planned to leaders. Here’s a look at the according to Notre Dame Lisa Madigan’s office. Peter ‘THE BEST OF ROYKO’ focus on prayer and spiritual retreat. researcher and teacher Isely, one of the activists, reflection, and they would Timothy O’Malley. He says said a letter was sent to For more than 30 years, Mike Royko was a part of the not spend the week formu- What’s on the agenda? one of Francis’ biggest con- Pope Francis addressing daily fabric of Chicagoans’ lives, penning often humorous lating policy amid the According to Archdio- cerns has been that the these concerns.

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