Sentencing was scheduled for May 17 at 1:15 p.m. Pereschuk will remain free until then.
According to court records, Pereschuk cashed 26 checks ranging in value from $77 to $200 at the club between March 20 and April 5, 1999, in exchange for membership privileges, specifically gambling on tip jars.
All the checks were on the Bulldog Federal Credit Union and were returned marked nonsufficient funds, court records said.
Assistant Washington County State's Attorney Bill Hayden said the Red Men's Club is seeking full restitution, including $650 in bad check charges, for a total of $4,927.
Hayden told Beachley that Pereschuk's background includes a 1980 forgery conviction and a 1999 theft in Baltimore for which he was sentenced to probation.
"Mr. Pereschuk has agreed not to go back to the Red Men's Club," said defense attorney Brian Hutchison, who cited marital problems as being at the source of the alcohol relapse and gambling binge.
Now employed by Buck's Pizza, Pereschuk asked to be put on a $200 a month payment schedule, Hutchison said. The first payment was made Monday.
Contacted at his home Monday afternoon, Red Men house Committee Chairman Ernest C. Unger said the club now has a policy in effect to prevent such occurrences from happening again.
"Mr. Pereschuk was the club doorman then," Unger said. "I suspect the bartenders had a suspicion, but how are they to know?"
Unger said the club now sends a letter to a member who cashes a bad check and gives the member 10 days to make the check good.
If the check isn't paid, then a second letter is sent and the member is put on a bad check list. Membership can be suspended and prosecution is possible, Unger said.
"We got a black eye on this one," Unger said of the Pereschuk case. "But we do a lot of good for children and older folks with that (gambling) money."
