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Java & Jive: the rise and fall of the Java & Jazz Cafe

Theft, threats, and treachery alleged as great idea goes very wrong

By Ron Phillips

Fort Wayne Reader

2005-05-30

It was an intriguing idea – a downtown nightspot featuring a variety of exotic coffees and an eclectic mix of live music nearly every day of the week. However, less than three months after its debut, The Java & Jazz Café, 1301 Lafayette St., is locked up tight – its owner evicted and facing a full menu of legal challenges and accusations including fraud, check deception, forgery, vandalism, harassment and more.

The Java & Jazz Café was the brainchild of Cornelius L. Thomas, 37, an entrepreneur/renaissance man (according to his press materials), who launched the endeavor with plans for a host of ambitious side projects. “You can come to the Java & Jazz Café, and there will be live entertainment almost every single night,” Thomas told the Fort Wayne Reader in March. “We’re also going to have a cyber café set-up.”

And that wasn’t all. Thomas announced plans for a weekly television show, an after-school program for youth, and a “visual & performing arts union” titled the “Breakfast Club,” which promised marketing, studio space and legal representation to local artists. However, none of these side projects would ever see the light of day, and in fact, the café itself found itself on shaky ground from day one.

Thomas’ plans for The Java & Jazz Café followed immediately after the demise of his first foray into the local coffee shop business, the Coffee and Toast Café, 1805 E. Washington Blvd., which closed after about 18-months in business. Having done catering for businessman Sal Soto’s Avant-Garde Gallery, 1301 Lafayette St., Thomas learned of Soto’s interest in having a coffee shop next to the gallery. Soto contracted the Steffen Group, a local commercial real estate firm, to screen potential tenants and handle details of the lease agreement. Thomas was identified as a suitable tenant and signed to a lease drafted by the Steffen Group on January 28, 2005.

Despite the failure of his last business, a Java & Jazz Café press release said that this time around, Thomas “teamed up with private investors.” Rebecca Fitzgerald was one of those investors. According to police reports, Fitzgerald claims she spent more than $1,200 of her own money to buy supplies for the business and used another $2,800 in personal credit to buy furniture for the café. She alleges Thomas promised her a paid position as manager of the café along with 20,000 shares of company stock in exchange for her investment. In the police report, Fitzgerald adds that her father and several friends also gave Thomas money in exchange for shares of The Java & Jazz Café. However, Fitzgerald later learned that the business was never legally incorporated. As a result, the “stock” was worthless. She told police that Thomas never repaid any of her money nor compensated her for the long hours she worked in the café.

Fitzgerald wasn’t alone. Not only did other “partners” claim they lost money on the café, several employees say they lost money, too. The café projected that it would create as many as “15 new full and part-time jobs,” but according to complaints filed with local and state agencies, many Java & Jazz employees never got paid. Instead, a steady stream of new workers, mostly teenage girls, cycled through the café working a two week pay period before learning that payday would never arrive.

As it turned out, many things about The Java & Jazz Café weren’t quite what they seemed. The café boasted having a full menu – breakfast, lunch and dinner – featuring everything from pancakes to pork chops to chicken wings. However, the café never had a kitchen or a chef. Thomas cooked up a limited menu on a discount store electric griddle. Although Thomas told the media that his weekly TV show would debut in April, with popular news anchor Terra Brantley as host, Brantley never agreed to be on the show and Thomas never paid the production crew working on the project. His “Breakfast Club” arts union, which charged $20 per month dues and collected information from applicants as young as age 14, claimed to have non-profit status but never filed paperwork with the IRS.

As word about the café’s troubles circulated, customer traffic, which was never very robust to begin with, reduced to a trickle. At the same time, visits by disgruntled vendors, some with police escort, increased. From plants to pinball machines to plasma television screens, vendors repossessed merchandise complaining of non-payment. The coffee shop even found itself without its leased cappuccino machine for a short time. However, Thomas won a brief reprieve when he struck a deal with a new set of potential partners, Lyle and Teresa Yarbrough.

The Yarbroughs, who had some experience in the coffee business as importers of African coffee beans, saw potential in The Java & Jazz Café despite the owner’s present struggles. According to police reports, the couple went into business with Thomas in early April and provided a cappuccino machine to replace his repossessed one. But the arrangement didn’t last long. According to an April 20 police report, Teresa Yarbrough said she and her husband terminated the partnership after Thomas “forged her name on a check to pay a bill.” She also accused Thomas of opening her mail in order to get her credit card number, and harassing her with repeated telephone calls and threats. The Yarbroughs filed suit against Thomas accusing him of providing “false and misleading” information in order to “lure (them) into a bogus business partnership contract.” They’re seeking $6,000 in damages. The case is set for August. In the meantime, Thomas has sued the couple for breach of contract.

Sal Soto also pursued legal action against Thomas. In addition to unpaid rent and bounced checks, Soto says he was concerned about construction work Thomas performed inside the café. Thomas erected a performing stage, counter, lights and even cut holes in the building’s wood floor all without proper building permits Soto claimed in an April court hearing. Thomas argued that permits weren’t required for the work he performed. He also testified that he was a licensed contractor. So far, however, he has failed to produce a contracting license despite a judge’s request.

An even larger concern was Thomas’ increasingly hostile attitude toward Soto, the Yarbroughs and other tenants in the DeSoto Building. Witnesses say Thomas, a military veteran, frequently bragged about killing people while in the army, and admitted a psychiatric history, which included symptoms of bipolar disorder. During an emergency eviction hearing in April, Soto and other witnesses testified before the 38th Judicial Circuit Court of Allen County that Thomas threatened physical violence against Soto and other tenants. Soto even secured a restraining order prohibiting Thomas from coming near Soto or coming inside the rest of the DeSoto Building. During his testimony, Thomas denied making any threats and accused Soto of rallying the other tenants against him. Hours after the conclusion of the two-day hearing, one of the witnesses who testified against Thomas had one of his tires slashed in the DeSoto Building parking lot. Another witness found a three-inch scratch on her car after testifying against Thomas. Thomas denied any involvement in the vandalism.

A judge ultimately ruled against the emergency eviction primarily because of what he deemed to be an error in the wording of the lease agreement drafted by the Steffen Group. The judge called the lease “ambiguous” in several sections. And as far as the police complaints against Thomas, he has neither been tried nor convicted of any wrongdoing. Thomas maintains that he is the victim of a smear campaign.

However, legal wrangling, problems with vendors and a dwindling pool of artists willing to perform in exchange for the shrinking door admission took its toll on The Java & Jazz Café. By mid-May, Thomas stopped opening the café and begin dismantling some of the construction inside. He also removed the $2,800 in furniture purchased by Fitzgerald. Fearing further damage to the space, Soto had the locks changed and barred Thomas from re-entering the former café. At present, Thomas’ whereabouts are unknown, but he is believed to be planning another business – a beauty salon with an accompanying coffee shop.

While Thomas’ present status is a mystery, his recent past was uncovered with a simple Internet search of criminal and civil records. Prior to relocating back to Fort Wayne, Thomas claimed to have been a contractor in Marion County. A check of court records there reveals a number of civil judgments against Thomas and police investigations of accusations of check deception, criminal recklessness and more. For the price of a few cups of coffee, had these records been reviewed earlier, Thomas’ partners, employees, vendors and landlord might have saved themselves thousands of dollars.