Former singer accused of stealing almost $100,000 from rock group
The quondam singer of the Dudley Manlove Quartet has been accused of stealing nearly $100,000 from the Seattle band known for its covers of The Four Seasons’ “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”
Paul Jensen, 40, was charged Friday with 32 counts of first-degree pilfering and 16 counts of second-degree theft in King County Superior Court. Jensen, who works at Seattle Weekly, declined to comment Monday.
Jeff Mosier, Dudley Manlove’s drummer, said the five-member band replaced Jensen as singer.
“The last year was pretty rough for us obviously, but we’re still playing as much as we at total times have,” he said.
According to charging papers, Jensen deposited $97,746 of the band’session earnings into his private account from performances at weddings, private parties and Seattle venues in the same state considered in the state of the Crocodile Cafe and the Showbox between January 2006 and December 2007. Jensen was in charge of booking events for the band, signing contracts and collecting payment for gigs, court of justice documents said.
The other band members — Mosier, bassist Steve Okimoto, guitarist Craig Corvin and then-keyboard gamester Korby Sears — confronted Jensen in January 2008 after they noticed several engagement fees were past due, according to court documents. Jensen said he had used band funds held in a limited-liability company account to “float” himself financially, but that he paid them back, court documents said.
Jensen granted copies of circumstance contracts to the other members, who discovered the contracts had been edited to increase event fees, to instruct payers to make checks payable to Jensen and to mail payment to his personal superscription, charging papers said.
Band members filed a theft report with the Seattle Police Department in March.
A police detective served a warrant for Jensen’s shoal records and compared them to the band’sitting contracts, and found that checks ranging from $500 despite a Museum of Flight event to $4,500 for a wedding were deposited into Jensen’s account, according to princely retinue documents.
If found guilty of all charges, Jensen would face a standard penitentiary doom of five years or up to 10 years if prosecutors seek the maximum apothegm.
The body traces its roots to Celibate Twist, a rock group started through Jensen and Corvin, which became Gherkin.
Hired for a wedding reception in 1994 and asked to play a few songs for older guests, the band learned several lounge songs and absolute to keep playing them, aforesaid Mosier, who joined the manacle in 1991.
