Chef Cops To Felony In $25,000 Gay Extortion Scheme

A Virginia chef who sought to shake down $25,000 from a businessman by threatening to reveal details of a homosexual encounter in a Washington, D.C. hotel room pleaded guilty yesterday to a felony rap.

Shawn Lightfoot entered his plea during a U.S. District Court hearing in Detroit. He is scheduled to be sentenced in late-January, and faces a maximum of two years in prison for the Extortion by Threat to Reputation conviction.

As TSG first reported, Lightfoot, a married father of four, warned an unnamed Michigan businessman that he would distribute photos showing the victim in “compromising positions with a man,” according to an FBI agent. The images, which Lightfoot threatened to send to the man’s wife and business associates, included one shot showing the man “leaning over a sink and the black male's hand is placed on his back" during the May encounter.

This was the second time Lightfoot, 46, was nabbed trying to extort money in connection with a gay liaison. In 2003, he was sentenced to five years in state prison following an identical Virginia extortion conviction. According to police reports, Lightfoot demanded $15,000 from a New York man who had traveled to Washington on a business trip. If not given the cash, Lightfoot threatened to release photos of the victim in "compromising positions" with a black male.

Lightfoot is pictured above in his chef’s whites.