Park Ridge teens charged in connection with stolen Wisconsin concert tickets negotiate pleas, repayment

Lawyers for three Park Ridge teens charged with felonies and accused of getting high-value stolen concert tickets from a Kenosha County, Wisconsin ticket booth last summer are negotiating terms for the teens before their next court appearance, according to a prosecutor.

The negotiations involve the teens’ pleas and sentencing, according to Jennifer Tanck-Adams, an assistant district attorney in Kenosha County. She said the original restitution for the teens was for $50,000, the same value as what the tickets were worth, according to a July 25 Kenosha criminal complaint. She said the victim asked for the restitution to be reduced to $20,000.

Tanck-Adams said if the teens receive a sentence of probation, they could petition to serve that in Illinois under the interstate compact with the Department of Corrections.

The three teens, Thomas Bernatek, Amelia Miulli and Morgan Timmons, were age 18 when they were each charged with a class G felony in July 2023 for receiving stolen admission wristband tickets to Country Thunder, a country music festival in Kenosha County. The three are alumni of Maine South High School, according to a Maine Township High School 207 spokesperson.

Country Thunder’s site manager reported a burglary to Kenosha County Sheriff’s deputies on July 23, 2023 and said the the festival’s will call booth was tampered with after it closed the previous night, according to a criminal complaint. It also said admission wristbands worth at least $50,000 had gone missing.

According to the criminal complaint, the site manager checked the internet and found Bernatek had posted some of the wristbands for sale.

Law enforcement officers set up a sting operation in which they arranged a meeting with Bernatek to supposedly purchase tickets. Once the officers confirmed that Bernatek had the wristbands, they detained him.

A sheriff’s department investigation found Bernatek texted Miulli about the wristbands and he planned to sell them. Miulli denied any knowledge of plans to sell wristbands.

The defendants’ lawyers, based in the Kenosha area, did not respond to requests for comment.

The next court date is set for April 12. An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt.