When I interviewed Elgin James a few weeks ago, his personal narrative was so compelling that it's no surprise Hollywood wanted to option it. A former Boston gang leader who stole from drug dealers to give to straight-edge causes, James had cleaned up his act and moved out west to become a filmmaker, and after seeing two of his scripts accepted into the Sundance Labs, he was preparing to go into production on one of them (Goodnight Moon, starring Alia Shawkat and Juno Temple) in just a few months. It was a striking trajectory, though as James told me then, "The criminal lifestyle is more honest, maybe, then what I found in Hollywood." Still, it seems that former lifestyle may have caught up with him.
The Boston Phoenix reports that James was indicted by the FBI this week on extortion charges that could carry a sentence of up to twenty years in prison.
According to the allegations, in October 2005, a member of Chicago band Mest was beaten by six men as he walked to his tour bus, forcing Mest to cancel its show that night for fear of further attacks. A month later, James contacted the victim and informed him that for a payment of $5,000 to James's gang, FSU, he could buy himself "protection" for the band's upcoming tour. The money, James was alleged to have said, would be used to bail out a friend of James and to buy Christmas gifts for his children.
In February 2006, the victim met with James while under FBI surveillance and exchanged the money, an act that would lead to the charges against the fledgling filmmaker over three years later.
Phoenix blogger Carly Carioli said of James yesterday, "Late last night we heard through the grapevine that he was out on bail." Developing...
ยท From Sundance to the slammer: FSU founder-turned-filmmaker indicted on extortion charges by FBI [The Phoenix]