16 JANUARY 29-FEBRUARY 4, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | cohol illegally, as the leaseholder no longer matched the license” and continued oper- ating illegally under Boogie Force Produc- tions LLC, before she purchased Pearl Stop LLC “to restore compliance.” Meanwhile, “Bedwell also retained unauthorized control over the business’s Instagram account and used it to post harassing content. Johnson also alleges she “discovered unpaid vendor invoices, payroll discrepancies and missing inventory from prior management,” and that Bedwell “failed to turn over banking and POS access and continued to divert business rev- enue totaling $10,000 into an unauthorized EIN-linked account.” She complains that she was fi ned $5,000 by liquor enforcement “for violations committed before her ownership,” and received wage complaints “totaling ap- proximately $20,000, stemming from the period when Bedwell still controlled payroll and operations.” Her response also charges that people who submitted wage claims embezzled money. She is asking to be awarded compensa- tory damages, including “consequential and incidental damages; treble damages, fees, and costs on the civil theft claim; pre and post judgment interest at the statutory rate; declaratory and injunctive relief.” Neither Bedwell nor his attorney re- sponded to Westword’s requests for comment. Your Mom’s House Had Drama Before Jillian Johnson... Who Made It Worse “It’s heartbreaking,” Joseph Hite says of the current state of Your Mom’s House. “I put my blood, sweat and tears and lots of money into that place over an eight-year period.” Hite created Your Mom’s House with Bedwell, opening the venue in 2017 alongside two shadow co-owners, Tucker Schwab (21 percent owner) and Austin Lane (9 percent owner), who still have their shares but are not active in the club’s management. Hite put “countless hours” into the venue, including painting the building and designing signs. But as his relationship with Bedwell dete- riorated over the last couple of years and the business went further into debt, he says he decided to back away. Before that, he attempted to close the business altogether. On November 7, 2024, Hite sent staff an email titled “notifi cation of layoff and closure of The Pearl Stop LLC.” In the email, Hite said that “there have been multiple reviews and comments made to the company reporting artists not getting paid. The bills are late and not able to be paid. Licenses are not able to be paid. Payroll has been late the last 2 periods and as of today we don’t have even half the amount we need to complete payroll this period. Staying open is currently costing the company almost 800 a day that we don’t have to stay open....the pearl stop needs to close as soon as possible and all affected parties need to be notifi ed accordingly.” He added, “A total of %65 of this company wishes to make a sale and anyone including james who wants to make an offi cial offer on it.” Bedwell quickly sent his own email to the staff. “Everyone disregard what Joe Dan has said here. He isn’t the owner of Your Mom’s House or Boogie Force Productions LLC,” he wrote, referring to his own company that had ownership in the club. “You guys are not fi red and YMH is not closing down. Please carry on in working here at YMH. Everything is fi ne and we will continue to operate.” Bedwell had his own specifi c response for Hite: “There’s no need to sell YMH. If you’d like to then we’ll be going to court to dispute it.” Hite subsequently sold his 35 percent share of the business to Johnson, who agreed to pay him enough to cover a $10,000 com- pany credit-card debt and a $19,243 line of credit. The agreement, viewed by Westword, lists the outstanding state taxes. Johnson signed the deal on December 29, 2024. “She paid that $10,000 on that one credit card. I paid that off and closed the account,” Hite says. “And then the remainder, she said she couldn’t come up with that money, so I gave her a six-month loan.” Johnson only made a few payments on that loan, according to Hite, so he sent her a payment demand last September. A couple of weeks later, on October 6, Johnson emailed him a “fi nal demand and settlement notice” in an effort to get out of their contract, and threatened him with a lawsuit. “I was like, ‘Well, your scare tactics won’t work with me,’” Hite recalls. “As far as what you’ve heard about her not paying people? Yeah, it’s true, unfortunately,” he adds. “I feel a little sorry for her. I mean, I know her life has got to be an absolute nightmare.” “I’m Super Familiar With Colorado Wage Claims” Dominique Madsen saw some of the problems between Bedwell and Hite fi rst- hand, but she says they were nothing com- pared to what she would later face with Johnson. Madsen was hired at YMH in February 2023 and worked there as a manager until November 30, 2024, when she and a group of employees quit en masse. Before that, they made a proposal to buy into the venue as a co-op, dubbing it “Our House.” Hite was “thrilled” with the proposal, she recalls, but the employees couldn’t come up with the $60,000 needed to make it happen. Hite then sent the layoff email, which Bedwell told the staff to ignore. The fi nal straw for Madsen came when Bedwell asked her to fi le a police report claiming that Hite had removed equipment from the venue, which Hite says he “has receipts for.” Madsen refused. Bedwell “basically lost his mind on me,” she says. “I was already at the point of be- ing ready to walk out anyway, and the other managers were, as well. And it was kind of like, ‘Screw it. Let’s just do it on Saturday because there’s a huge show.’” She says that “the entire production team, all of the bartenders and bar staff, and then all of the security and fl oor, except for two people, resigned back-to-back that morn- ing.” When she resigned, Madsen informed Bedwell that in her fi nal act as the payroll administrator, she had processed separation checks for employees who were leaving, including pending reimbursements and contract-related payouts. “I even forfeited over a week’s worth of my own leave pay- out,” she says, “despite my contract stating the opposite.” A couple of days later, though, the money was clawed back from the now-ex-employ- ees’ accounts. “That night and into the fol- lowing morning,” Madsen says, “most of us fi led the wage claims.” The total amount due to Madsen is $10,340.16, according to a notice that the CDL sent in August to Pearl Stop LLC and Boogie Groove Entertainment. She hasn’t seen a dime. When Johnson started working with YMH, she appeared sympathetic to Mad- sen’s plight. “I’m reaching out to address the situation with YMH and to work toward resolving it,” Johnson wrote in a text to Madsen. “I have been involved in the Denver music scene for over two decades so this is saddening. My goal Music continued from page 15 continued on page 18 Jillian Johnson (front) bought majority ownership of Your Mom’s House in January 2025. The venue used to be packed for events like R&B Jam Fest. JILLIAN JOHNSON CHRIS OPHER
