She had clout, debt - and, bars say, a hook

Initially, the poignant tales of woe seemed heartfelt: She'd just lost her father; her best friend had been maimed in a motorcycle wreck.

But the people the former go-go dancer allegedly turned to for help - bar owners - were the very ones Gina Marie Kepler was being paid by the Pennsylvania State Police to regulate.

Kepler, 35, a state liquor enforcement officer for the last nine years, stands accused of a shakedown scheme that a 15-page federal indictment says grew to include seven bar owners across Montgomery and Bucks Counties. The owners say she employed her clout - and her sob stories - to get cash payments totaling $11,000 over two years.

Before her arraignment Oct. 7, Kepler, who denies the accusations, said her attorney, Mara Meehan of the Federal Community Defender Office, had instructed her not to comment.

"But I can say I'm looking forward to the opportunity to tell my side. Just because someone isn't able to talk doesn't mean that they don't want to - or that they've done something wrong," Kepler said.

Orphaned at 13, married at 18, and divorced at 20, Kepler turned to exotic dancing to make ends meet. It was one of several jobs her ex-husband said he had suggested to offset her lavish spending since she hadn't yet gotten her GED.

Staff Sgt. Thomas Scott Kepler, now stationed in Iraq, said last week that he was sad to hear about the allegations. He said he had hoped that his former wife's police position would have changed her habits.

Court records show Gina Kepler has filed for bankruptcy three times since 2004, amassing thousands of dollars in debt from credit cards, utility bills, and unpaid association fees on her Warrington condo.

"Money is like crack to this girl," Thomas Kepler said. "No matter how much she has, she always wants more."

The charges stunned others.

"I was shocked. I think everyone was," said Sharon L. Johnson, Kepler's former boss at Double Visions, which calls itself "an erotic go-go" venue in Horsham.

Johnson described Kepler as "a nice person," who, like many dancers, used Double Visions as "a stepping-stone" to other careers.

"I remember she was really excited about her job with the state police," Johnson said.

But Kepler allegedly strayed from her official duties at the Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, which included inspecting businesses that serve alcohol, issuing citations, and ordering closings for state liquor-law violations, according to the state police, the agency that has run the bureau since 1987.

Deets Radcliff, a longtime restaurateur whose bars include Bobby Burger's Tavern in Conshohocken, the Bridgeport Rib House in Bridgeport, and the Perkiomen Cafe in Oaks, said Kepler urged him to buy electronic ID-card scanners in March 2008. He said he had bought three machines for $875 apiece through a county tavern association.

A month later, he said, Kepler asked to borrow one for a day. He hasn't seen it since.

Radcliff said his efforts to reclaim the scanner suggested Kepler was a magnet for catastrophes. He said he had called her periodically and gotten excuses ranging from the death of her father to a girlfriend's terrible motorcycle accident.

"To this day, I still don't know if her father really died. I'd love to know that," said Radcliff, who has testified before a grand jury.

According to the indictment, Kepler immediately sold Radcliff's scanner to the Langhorne Hotel for $950, a price she described as her cost.

"That's unbelievable," Radcliff said upon hearing that information. "She lied to me about it for a year."

Joe Shields, an owner of Kenny's Spirited Eatery in Southampton, described a similar experience.

He said Kepler, whom he considered a friend, approached him in October 2006 with a "personal problem" and asked for a short-term loan of $2,000.

Every time he tried to get his money back, he said, she had a different reason for being unable to pay him.

"Her stories became comical," said Shields, who called some "whoppers."

The allegations came as no surprise to Shannon Jaskowiak, 29, of Lansdale, who described herself as an ex-friend of Kepler's.

Jaskowiak said she had sued Kepler after enduring a litany of excuses for Kepler's failure to repay more than $800.

"I hope justice is finally served," said Jaskowiak, who won a judgment of $826.55 against Kepler - still unpaid.

When Kepler, who was born in Manayunk, was orphaned in 1987 at age 13, she and her siblings moved in with their uncle in Absecon, N.J. The uncle, Peter Minio, a scallop fisherman, was killed by a drunk driver on the Garden State Parkway on April 4, 2008, according news reports at the time.

A month later, Jaskowiak said, Kepler postponed their court hearing on the lawsuit, telling officials her father had just died.

Social Security records list Kepler's parents as Anthony A. Minio, who died in 1985 at 48, and his wife, Norma E. Minio, who died at 40 two years later.

Kepler, who attended Absegami High School, married 25-year-old Thomas Kepler in 1992, according to court records. Six months after they tied the knot, Thomas Kepler filed for bankruptcy to avert a mortgage foreclosure, court records show. And just over a year into the marriage, he filed for divorce. It was granted in October 1994.

He said his wife "got hooked" on go-go dancing after making $100 in tips during a three-song audition at an Atlantic City club.

She stuck with it for several years before turning to law enforcement in 2000, working for four months as a corrections officer at the Bucks County prison, county records said.

By July 2000, Gina Kepler's background had passed muster with state police, spokesman Jack J. Lewis said. Job requirements for a liquor enforcement officer included a high school diploma and physical-fitness criteria, according to the state police Web site.

Lewis said that he could not comment on the specifics of Kepler's background investigation, but that the process now requires psychological and polygraph exams.

Maj. John Lutz, who has led the Liquor Control Enforcement Bureau since 2006, said Kepler, one of 140 liquor enforcement officers statewide, was earning about $45,000 a year when she was suspended and then resigned in February.

Once the allegations surfaced, Lutz said, police took immediate steps to identify other potential victims, sending a letter to more than 3,000 establishments that might have had contact with Kepler.

Lutz said that the letter included the phone number of an investigating trooper, but that potential victims of the "LCE investigation" could also contact the FBI at 215-641-8910.

Only one of the nine establishments referenced in the indictment was cited by Kepler during the investigated period, October 2006 to October 2008, Lutz said.

He said the bar had bounced a vendor's check, a "relatively minor" infraction that was easily verified by bank records. Lutz said the bureau issued 3,119 administrative citations in 2008, a number that has "remained fairly constant" for several years.

If convicted of all seven counts of Hobbs Act extortion, Kepler faces a maximum prison sentence of 140 years and a $1,750,000 fine.

In the meantime, bar owner Radcliff is hoping to get his scanner back.

"I don't want to buy another one if I'm going to get it back," he said.

Unlike other owners mentioned in the indictment, Radcliff said Kepler had never threatened him with potential violations.

"She seemed to believe what she was saying. In fact, she's probably still saying that she plans to return the scanner tomorrow," he said.