Restaurant owner sentenced to 9 years, deportation
Restaurant owner sentenced to 9 years, deportation
By Mark Fisher, Staff Writer
Updated 12:44 PM Wednesday, June 6, 2012
DAYTON — Eva Christian — who has owned and operated Boulevard Haus (formerly Cafe Boulevard) in Dayton’s Oregon District for 15 years — was sentenced Wednesday morning to nine years in prison for her insurance fraud conviction.
Christian, who holds German citizenship, will be deported after completing her prison senctence, assistant Montgomery County Prosecutor Mary Montgomery said.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Barbara P. Gorman sentenced Christian to prison. Gorman said Christian, by law, will be required to sell her residence to help pay restitution to the insurance she defrauded and to help pay for the investigation that led to her conviction.
Gorman denied Christian’s emotional pleas for release on bond while she appeals her conviction.
"The impact of Wednesday’s sentencing on the Boulevard Haus remains unclear, although Donald Stamper, a long-time employee who answered the restaurant’s phone during lunch service Wednesday, said the restaurant is operating business as usual.
“We’re definitely going to stay open,” Stamper said. “Our entire staff has pulled together as a team.”
A jury convicted Christian May 22 on all five counts she faced related to two incidents of insurance fraud. Prosecutors said Christian faced a maximum of 17 years in prison. Prosecutors said they would request the maximum sentence in part because Christian “committed a series of very serious crimes that put a large number of people in danger and at risk of being harmed,” Mary Montgomery, assistant Montgomery County prosecutor, said after the two-and-a-half-week trial.
Christian has been held in the Montgomery County Jail since her conviction.
The case revolved around break-ins during 2009 that Christian reported and which prosecutors said were staged in order to collect insurance money: one at her Washington Twp. home and one at her now-defunct Cena Brazilian Steakhouse in Miami Twp. by the Dayton Mall. Testimony during the two-week trial included a witness who said Christian wanted to “blow up” Cena, which was adjacent to a family-portrait studio and men’s clothing store near the Dayton Mall in Miami Twp.
The restaurant owner was convicted of two counts of insurance fraud and two counts of making false alarms in connection with the reported break-ins, and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a first-degree felony.
Christian testified and denied wrongdoing. But prosecutors presented testimony from police, fire and insurance company investigators and from witness Diane Jones, who testified that she and her husband were part of a scheme developed by Christian to defraud insurers in both break-ins.
“There are way too many inconsistencies — she can’t get away with rewriting history anymore,” Montgomery said of Christian during her closing argument May 21. “She’s like the little boy who cried wolf — only she was the wolf.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2258 or mfisher@DaytonDailyNews.com.
Restaurant owner sentenced to 9 years, deportation
