Authorities have Tillman in their sights again

Businessman with a history of run-ins with law enforcement and the courts has had 6 buildings linked to him raided recently

"My impression of him was that he was very naive," Ambridge said in an interview this week, recalling a hearing in which he said Tillman tried to win support by bragging about his community initiatives. "He told us he bought uniforms for a marching band and a copy machine for a senior citizens' high-rise. It was the typical, 'I'm not trying to do anything wrong, these kids need something to do.' "

The same month that Tillman pleaded guilty to trying to bribe the zoning officer, he shut down Odells when he couldn't get a permit from a zoning appeals board to operate it as a dance hall. His scheme to bribe Giovanna A. Blatterman went awry when an intermediary he used to make the payoff gave $20,000 to an undercover FBI agent.

After Tillman served time for bribery, federal authorities charged, and proved, that he had failed to pay taxes on the bar from 1989 to 1992. In a later unpublished opinion from the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding his 57-month sentence for tax evasion, the court said that during that time, Tillman owned not only Odells but a bail bond business and had an interest in 31 rental properties.

Federal prosecutors said then that he tried to make his income appear aboveboard by allowing a friend to use his International Longshoremen's Association union card to draw a salary as a stevedore at the Dundalk marine terminal, which Tillman claimed on his own tax returns. He paid cash and rarely kept or demanded receipts, authorities said.

Even between stints in prison on his bribery and tax evasion convictions, Tillman kept his hand in the city's nightlife scene. He worked with the owners of two new nightclubs - Volcano's on Greenmount Avenue and Trilogy on Eutaw Street - both of which ran into trouble with the city even while they were used by politicians for fundraisers.

In 1996, Tillman's attorney, Michael Marr, described his client to jurors as an inept businessman who used cash because he didn't understand the complexities of finance. Quoted in a 1996 Sun article on Tillman's conviction, Marr said his client "did the best he could."