20 JANUARY 29-FEBRUARY 4, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | nessed disputes between Johnson and Dom Garcia and Ashlee Cassity, who had intro- duced Pearl Divers nights at Your Mom’s House in December 2024, before deciding to leave the venue and take over the Mercury Cafe location at 2199 California Street. They asked Jenkins if he could help with designs at the new space, and he agreed. “I kept it under the radar because Jill started getting quite aggressive,” he says. “How do I put this? She has one of those personality types that, if something in her system deems that someone has slighted her, she gets really determined that that person is out to get her, or is evil. She gets really begrudging.” Eventually, Johnson found out he was working with Garcia and Cassity, and told him he would have to choose between the two bars. He chose the Pearl, “and as a result of that, she stopped paying me,” Jenkins says. “She did not pay me for the last week of work I did.” Jenkins fi led a claim with the Department of Labor. Because Johnson didn’t respond within the sixty-day deadline, Johnson was ordered to pay Jenkins $475.60 in unpaid wages as well as $6,000 in penalties, plus $1,500 in fi nes to the state, according to the CDL’s notice of determination. “Since then,” he says, “she’s been avoid- ing being served like crazy. I still haven’t received my money.” For months, he tried to serve her with a demand for payment. “I’ve had my friends try to do it,” he says, “and any time that somebody goes over to the venue to try to get a hold of her, she, I guess, directed the employees to tell them that she’s not there.” Jenkins guessed right. “I know that Jill would be there as little as possible,” recalls Rosemary Spreight, who worked at YMH as a bartender from September 2025 until the end of October. “She said that if anybody asked for her, just say that she wasn’t there.” When Spreight brought up her own lack of payment with Johnson, she says she was removed from employee group chats and an app used for scheduling shifts. “I sent her a text that I fi led my demand for payment via email,” Spreight says, adding that after she posted on Facebook about the issue, she received a Venmo payment from Johnson... and a threat. “She owed me $450; she sent me $337 and took $122 out for taxes. I told her that that was wrong; she said she still owes me $47, but hasn’t sent it,” she says. “Then, she threatened to send the cops to wherever I was because she is fi ling a restraining or- der against me. She said that my Facebook post is slander and she wants to sue me for that, too.” Spreight still fi led a claim with the Depart- ment of Labor, saying she’s still owed $450. Jhenae Westbrook also fi led a wage claim. According to her demand for payment, she is owed $664.47; her fi ling claims that she was employed for 25 days without pay. Westbrook began working at YMH as a barback in October 2025; her last day was November 8. Aside from not being paid, she says, “it was a very nice workplace, very nice people.” Like Spreight, Westbrook says she wasn’t formally fi red, but was removed from em- ployee communications. After going without pay, Westbrook searched Johnson’s name on Google and saw “Facebook post after Facebook post,” she says. “Even posts that she made on Instagram, past statements and comments. It defi nitely wasn’t positive. I felt like I had to search to see anything positive. I guess that would’ve been good to know, but... it did make me feel better to know it wasn’t a personal experience.” “Do Not Fuck With These People” — Performers Getting Stiffed Josh Garcia, the owner of Makeshift Skateboards and Makeshift Music House, met Johnson through the punk scene, when No Fux Punx Productions booked a friend’s band from Austin, the Brothels, at HQ. A year later, he decided to book his artist Nattali Rize at Your Mom’s House on May 24, 2025. “We did that show, it went great, but the way Your Mom’s House is ran is a joke,” he says, noting that the venue had been double- booked. “During load-in, the main bartender quit. And then in the green room, one of the security guards asked if we needed waters or anything. And we go, ‘Yeah, man, we could use some waters!’ And he goes, ‘Oh, I don’t got anything like that.’ ... As soon as he walks out, we’re just cracking up.” The show went well, but Rize later told Garcia she hadn’t been paid. When Garcia reached out to Johnson, he says she told him that she’d sent a payment of around $2,500. “Oh, God, here we go,” he remembers think- ing. “This is what I’ve been hearing about. Once I brought up Nattali, communication ceased to exist.” Rize let the issue slide, he says, and he didn’t try to contact Johnson again. But after he learned the Brothels hadn’t been paid for a show in August, he watched the ensuing “crash-and-burn kind of thing” on social media...until all of a sudden he couldn’t. Garcia had been blocked by Johnson. “I never did anything like this to anyone when I was in my stages of learning how to be a promoter,” Garcia says. “I’ve never experienced anything like that.” David Luna, the lead vocalist and front- man of the Brothels, hopes that other punk bands won’t have the same experience with No Fux Punx Productions and Your Mom’s House that he did. He had met Johnson and Jon Pawn, who together run No Fux Punx, in the summer of 2024 when No Fux Punx booked the Brothels to play HQ alongside the Pawns, Jon Pawn’s band. Luna says he became friends with Pawn and Johnson, and stayed in touch with them. The Brothels were booked by No Fux Punx to perform at YMH in September with legendary punk group M.D.C., after Luna recommended the venue to M.D.C.’s own booker. In screenshots shared with Westword, Johnson told Luna she would pay the Brothels $1,000 for the dates at YMH, as well as “probably” $500 per show in Colorado Springs and Pueblo via No Fux Punx. “It’s not uncommon for [a] booker/ promoter to book shows in different cit- ies to ‘build’ their brand and expand their network,” Luna says. “Example: I recently invited 3 bands to do a four-day Texas run. I booked all the shows, was the main point of contact. I collected the money and I payed out the bands every night. I agreed to pay out the bands’ gaurantee, nightly. If we didn’t make the gaurantee that night, it’s up to me to come with the money I committed to, not the actual venue.” Luna says the band received $1,000 total. The Brothels had planned to use the rest of the money for an offshoot tour, but when he texted Johnson regarding the other $1,000, she replied: “I know I would never agree to $2,000,” adding, “I hope you wreck your van and your head gets cut off.” Luna now regrets not signing a contract, he says, “but when you’re friends with some- one for over a year and a half...” Luna blocked Johnson after receiving vitriolic messages from her for a week. “I don’t even give a fuck about the money any- more,” he adds. “But just being in the punk scene and the music scene for decades...I just want to let everyone know: Do not fuck with those people.” He’s not the only one. Numerous posts in Denver-centric Facebook groups claim nonpayment by YMH, and reference John- son’s unique use of social media platforms. Johnson has maintained that social-me- dia strategy in the wake of the city seizing Your Mom’s House. “Fuck Denver Westword,” she wrote, after an article about the venue’s December closure went live on westword.com. “You guys are so lame that you’ve written 5 articles about me in 1 year [laughing emoji] I’m fl at- tered by y’all’s obsession with your tabloid paper. It’s funny how I tell everyone about this all day FUCK THE WESTWORD.” Email the author at [email protected]. Music continued from page 18 Your Mom’s House is in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Your Mom’s House once won a Best of Denver award for its glowing dance fl oor. SAM NGUYEN JULIANNA O’CL AIR
