Admit 1 -- to jail
TICKET SCAM | Convicted counterfeiter could get 5 years

April 21, 2008Recommend (6)

BY ERIC HERMAN Criminal Courts Reporter eherman@suntimes.com
Royce Knight had plenty of tickets to the Nov. 5, 2006, Bears-Miami Dolphins game -- so many, in fact, that he kept nine of them in his underwear.

But the tickets to see that season's Super Bowl-bound Bears weren't the real deal.

» Click to enlarge image

Counterfeit tickets were sold by Royce Knight (inset) for the Nov. 5, 2006, Bears-Dolphins game at Soldier Field. Electronic scanners rejected the fake tickets.
(AP)



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'Big-time' ticket forger faces 5 years in prison
Now, Knight, 41, faces up to five years in prison after his conviction last month on eight counts of forgery, a felony. The Lithonia, Ga., resident is to be sentenced Monday in Cook County Criminal Court.

According to prosecutors and other sources, Knight is a big-time ticket counterfeiter who is also under investigation in other cities. National Football League officials have been aware of him for some time, said Assistant State's Attorney Lawrence X. O'Reilly.

"He's been on their radar for a while as a major counterfeiter for sporting event tickets," O'Reilly said.

93 phony tickets
On the day Knight got busted near Soldier Field, the Bears were on a roll, with a 7-0 record. That day's game against Miami turned out to be their first loss. But the team ended up going to Super Bowl XLI.

That day, a Chicago Police officer on a Segway allegedly saw Louis Davis standing on the street holding up two fingers. After selling two tickets to some fans, Davis walked over to Knight in the 700 block of South Michigan and handed him the proceeds, prosecutors said. Knight was about to give Davis two more tickets when police arrested the men. Davis was charged with a municipal ordinance violation.

Police said they found nine additional tickets stashed in Knight's underwear. And when they searched his Chevrolet, they found 80 more.

Two fake tickets kept by Soldier Field personnel were later turned over, bringing the total to 93.

Knight's lawyer, Richard Kloak, maintained that "the state did not prove that he had knowledge that the tickets were forged."

But according to O'Reilly and prosecution witnesses, the tickets had obvious flaws. For one, the colors were faded, Bears and Ticketmaster representatives testified. Disclaimer language printed on the back of the tickets was blurred. The "event code" for the game was wrong. Oh, and one more thing: The tickets were for seats that don't exist.

"Maybe an expert could tell, but a regular lay person couldn't tell" they were fake, Kloak said.

Fans who bought Knight's tickets for their $95 face value were out of luck. At the stadium, electronic scanners rejected the tickets.

'Big-time' forger?
Judge James Obbish refused to consider the 80 tickets in Knight's car, ruling that police had searched the car unlawfully. But Obbish still found Knight guilty March 26, after a bench trial.

Though Knight was selling his tickets on the street with just one accomplice, an NFL source said he is likely a "big-time" forger. In 2007, Knight was charged by authorities in Denver with selling bogus tickets to a Denver Broncos game. He is also being investigated in Atlanta, O'Reilly said.

Knight's criminal record includes a 1998 conviction for felony theft in Georgia.

He was out on bail when he flew in from Atlanta last month for his trial. Taken into custody after the guilty verdict, he was found to be carrying $1,495 in cash, court personnel said. He placed a frantic call to ask a friend to retrieve his rental car, which, he said, had $2,000 in cash stashed between the front seats.
[Edited 4/21/08 15:09pm]