Former event promoter faces several charges

Published Saturday, September 20, 2008

JOPLIN (AP) - A former concert and event promoter is charged with four contempt counts after failing to make restitution to victims who gave him booth-rental fees for concerts and events that never happened.

Derrick Gates, 30, is charged with one count of failing to make restitution payments of $680.04, two counts of failing to properly register a business and one count of using a name other than his legal name to conduct business.

The state attorney general’s office also is looking into whether Gates’ new ministry violates a permanent injunction banning him from promoting concerts and events and whether he has failed to disclose income that could have been used to pay off portions of the restitution judgment.

The attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit against Gates and two other men in December, alleging they defrauded vendors of tens of thousands of dollars in down payments for booth space for three events that never took place.

The sham events were Godstock, a Christian music festival scheduled for last summer in Joplin; Battle for the Mic, a rap concert that was slated for August 2007 in Kansas City; and the Ink-Deep Tattoo Convention, which was to be held in December 2007.

Gates was ordered in June to pay more than $28,500 in restitution to the vendors and was given 3½ years to do it.

Gates also was permanently banned from promoting concerts and events, and he can’t take deposits from vendors unless he first posts a $200,000 cash bond with the local court.

The order also stipulated that any future businesses that Gates undertook must comply with Missouri laws and be registered with the secretary of state’s office under his legal name.

The judgment included a $25,000 fine that was suspended pending his compliance with the order.

An attorney for Gates, also known as Derrick Badders, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment yesterday, and the only phone number listed for a Derrick Gates in Joplin had been disconnected.

Gates declined to comment to The Joplin Globe earlier in the week when asked for an interview about an alternative church he started, called Edge Worship.