The owner of a suburban Addison ice cream shop is facing new allegations that he illegally filmed underage girls in the bathroom of the restaurant.
The suit was filed against 58-year-old Steven Weisberg, who is currently in police custody after he was charged with multiple felonies in connection to an investigation that unfolded at the Flavor Frenzy shop in Addison earlier this year, according to attorneys.
According to the lawsuit, a total of 11 plaintiffs allege the owner forced teen girls to undress and change clothes in the shop’s bathroom while he secretly recorded them on video. He also allegedly rubbed their backs and touched their buttocks, and asked them to take an “online purity test,” according to the suit.
He allegedly reached out to the girls outside of work, and allegedly offered them marijuana and alcohol. The suit also alleges that he withheld wages or paid employees below the state’s minimum wage.
The law firm of Roman and Blandin is representing the plaintiffs in the case.
“There is little that is more wholesome than a high school job scooping ice cream at a local shop, but for our eleven teenage clients, this deceptively pleasant part-time job turned into manipulation, exploitation, shame, distrust, disrespect, and disbelief,” Attorney Antonio Romanucci said in a statement.
Weisberg was the subject of another lawsuit filed earlier in September. The plaintiff in that case alleged that they were surreptitiously recorded inside his home in Buffalo Grove in addition to the recording in the bathroom at Flavor Frenzy.
The lawsuit also alleges Jane Doe was secretly filmed at Weisberg’s home, after he invited her to play pickleball with him one afternoon —an invitation he had made repeatedly—and then suggested that she shower before they headed to work together, the victim has said.
“Our plaintiff has told us the whole incident has been indescribable, and she’s having a very difficult time wrapping her head around it,” attorney Matthew Siporin said in that case. “She feels like she’s in a constant daze. As she revisits the sequence of events, she feels violated and vulnerable. Her ability to trust others has been shattered.”
Weisberg was charged in August with two counts of child pornography, a Class X felony, and two counts of unauthorized video recording, according to the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Videos obtained by prosecutors filmed by the secret cameras Weisberg allegedly installed showed an underage girl trying on different Flavor Frenzy t-shirts, completely exposing her breasts to the camera throughout the video, authorities said. Police later identified the individual as a 16-year-old ice cream shop employee.
Prosecutors alleged that Weisberg allegedly asked the girl to try on and model different T-shirts for the business. According to authorities, detectives found two additional videos on his phone of yet-to-be-identified female employees, one of whom is a minor, “at various stages of undress, exposing their buttocks and sex organs.”
After Weisberg’s arrest, four more female employees, who are minors, told police he allegedly asked them to model t-shirts and told them to remove their bras for the photos so that there was no bra outline in the photos, according to officials.
“Mr. Weisberg allegedly falsely created an environment where children should have felt safe and secure,” Addison Chief of Police Roy Selvik said in the news release. “Instead, he betrayed not only their trust, but the trust of our entire community in one of the most heinous and disturbing ways.”
Flavor Frenzy remains closed, and Addison Police say the business license was voluntarily surrendered. They also say they are still taking reports on this case, and anyone with information should contact them.
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