Debt-Ridden Restaurateur Charged With Arson

The former proprietor of a Black River Falls, Wisconsin restaurant has racked up quite a tab. In addition to being knee-deep in debt, Brian C. Adkins is charged with being “party to arson,” as well as:

• Three counts of failure to file an income tax return.
• Four counts of theft in connection with failing to pay taxes.
• One count of obstructing an officer.
• One count of making fraudulent insurance claims. He is scheduled to appear in court for an initial appearance April 15.

Authorities believe the 40-year-old resorted to desperate measures—asking an employee to torch the Rustic Mill restaurant he then owned—to avert financial collapse. At the time of the suspicious fire, Adkins owed $60,000 to vendors and a construction company. Although the historic eatery had reportedly been profitable when Adkins and his wife, Laura, purchased it in July, 2010, the money had all but disappeared barely a year later, according to Tyler C. Keck, Adkins' son.

During the course of the ensuing investigation, Keck eventually told police his father owed employees money for their last week of work but “couldn't pay them.” It was Keck who allegedly asked Kyle W. Rott to “burn down” the Rustic Mill in exchange for $10,000 in insurance proceeds while they were cleaning out the business after it closed. According to the complaint filed in Jackson County Circuit Court this week, Rott later agreed to the deal, igniting the blaze on the evening of July 8, 2011.

Adkins did confess to investigators that he said he wished the Rustic Mill “would just burn down” in Rott and Keck's presence, but claimed it was a poorly timed joke. Now living in Las Vegas, Nevada, Adkins will make his initial court appearance on April 15. Rott, 20, was previously charged with arson and is scheduled to appear in court for a status conference on April 29.

Keck, 21, faces charges of being a party to arson and one count of resisting or obstructing an officer. He will appear in court for a status conference April 22.

The Rustic Mill building was erected in 1866 as the Charter Oak Mill. It opened as The Rustic Mill restaurant in 1963 and had changed ownership three times since 2007.