HAMILTON CO. – The man who announced over the summer that he was going to bring a “major attraction” to McLeansboro has been sued in Hamilton County Circuit Court.
Russ McKamey, of San Diego, Calif., was the recipient of a Small Claims complaint filed October 22 by Ed and Patricia Irvin of McLeansboro.
McKamey is the owner of “McKamey Manor,” a gruesome and some say too-realistic “haunt” (haunted house) that runs year round but really gears up every year for the Halloween seaons.
McKamey announced over the summer that he was moving his venue from business-unfriendly California and looking to site in just-a-little-less-business-unfriendly Illinois…namely, McLeansboro.
It never became clear how McKamey settled on McLeansboro as a place to open his next “haunt,” other than perhaps to throw a dart at a map.
Nevertheless, he created a firestorm of controversy in mid-July of this year when he announced that he was partnering with the Irvins to bring his haunt – and jobs and receipts tax/income – to Hamilton County.
The Irvins owned the building that McKamey was planning to use. When McKamey announced his intention to site, however, the backlash was so strong against the idea of the gruesome “business” that some people opted to vandalize the premises, causing grief and consternation – and money lost – for the Irvins, since McKamey hadn’t even moved in yet.
So in their Small Claim complaint, they’re asking for $10,000 in damages, which they state amounts to four months rent, property damages, and defamation of character.
The likelihood that they’ll prevail in this endeavor, especially as it pertains to the third aspect of it, is slim: A Small Claim case isn’t a tort set to deal with defamation; that’s its own tort, and in order to be successful, a defamed person has to show actual damages, as well as intent on the part of the defamer.
Whether there’s a contract for the rent, however, will remain the deciding factor in whether that claim actually goes through.
The complaint was set to be heard on November 25.