DARRINGTON — A man who left for China after his rock festival tanked in 2006 may soon have to face the music.
Brian Burkel, the ex-convict who planned the Darrington Rock Festival and allegedly didn’t pay dozens of workers and bands — including classic rock acts Cheap Trick, Mark Farner and Randy Bachman — could face a felony charge for allegedly writing a $36,000 bad check, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Detective Tommy Koziol said.
Koziol has forwarded the results of his investigation to the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutors will decide whether there is evidence to charge Burkel.
Because they weren’t paid, Cheap Trick, Farner and Bachman didn’t play, angering fans.
“I’d rather not comment,” said Burkel, who makes a living selling autographs on the Internet. “I’m tired of thinking about it, reading about it, hearing about it. I think everything I had to say I told you last time, which is just that it was a failed business.”
Burkel blames the concert disaster on thieving colleagues whom he accuses of breaking into his trailer, stealing his checkbook and writing checks he couldn’t cover.
The sheriff’s office concluded that Burkel wrote a bum check for $36,000 owed to his marketing manager, Bob Conrad of Knightime Direction in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Detectives looked into other bad checks Burkel allegedly wrote. Investigators had trouble getting in contact with the check recipients and because of that decided against recommend additional charges, Koziol said.
Some of the issues regarding the concert, such as ticket-holders feeling cheated after the headline bands didn’t play, are better handled in a civil lawsuit than a criminal investigation, Koziol said.
“Unfortunately, a large majority of what happened is a civil issue,” he said. “My whole thing came down to one check with Conrad. Out of all the people I spoke with, that was all it came down to.”
The investigation was stalled for months because detectives couldn’t find Burkel, Koziol said.
A few days after the August 2006 concert, Burkel, 50 at the time, moved to Guangzhou, China, where he said he was living with his bride, who he called “an angel from China.” Burkel recently moved back to Maple Valley. He hung up on a reporter before he could be asked about his marital status.
If convicted with unlawful issuance of bank checks — a Class C felony — Burkel could face jail time or fines.
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
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