Former Frankfort Pizzeria Owner Gets Probation For Upskirt Videos

FRANKFORT, IL — The former owner of a Frankfort pizzeria who pleaded guilty to six counts of criminal activity in connection with secretly taking upskirt videos of his employees has been sentenced to probation, according to court records.

Michael Papandrea, 60, was indicted in 2020 on 17 felony charges in connection to the unauthorized videotaping, which involved 1,900 videos that were shot using a shoe camera and another 14 videos that were shot using a camera posted above a toilet in one of Papandrea’s restaurants.

Papandrea, who owned Parmesans Wood Stone Pizza in Frankfort, Parmesans Station in Tinley Park, and Parmesans Manheim, was sentenced on Nov. 28 to serve 24 months of probation in connection to the crimes, according to court records.

Papandrea was also ordered to not have any contact with any of the former employees named in lawsuits that were filed against him. He was also ordered to undergo a psychosexual evaluation and was to have no unsolicited contact with minors, court documents show. Papandrea was sentenced to 50 percent of a 14-day jail sentence and received credit for one day served after he was arrested.

Records show that Papadrea was booked into the Will County Jail on Nov. 28 and was released on Dec. 3. Panandrea agreed to a plea bargain with Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow to have the 11 other felony charges filed against him dropped.

Papandrea was named in a lawsuit brought by eight former employees — some of whom were as young as 14 — and who said that they had been filmed with the use of the two cameras. A lawsuit was also filed in September 2020 in Will County by four ex-employees. The complaint stated the employees have suffered great harm and that Papandrea's actions were "outrageous and intentional." The case was dismissed without prejudice — meaning it could be refiled — in December.

For the lawsuit filed in Cook County, the former employees' attorneys said in a news release that a hard drive seized by police from Papandrea's Frankfort restaurant contains deleted files that have recently been retrieved by their forensic expert.

According to the complaint, Illinois State Police found more than 1,000 upskirt videos of female employees on Papandrea's cell phone.

Citing police, the former employees' attorneys said the files contained more than 24,000 photographs and videos that appear to have been taken over a decade of covert filming up the skirts of many young women.