Curious to talk to someone working on these type of cases, especially from the criminal side. We have had little luck closing them down with the civil actions. They just fight us - lose- and during the fight open up in another place under a different name, etc.

Anyone had any luck running them off with the chapter 47 gambling statues? (Class A's) What about chapter 71 Organized crime? (SJF)

We are going to hit some places soon. First time patrons-warnings; floor staff-class A gambling statutes; and main people making the $ -- Org. Crime.

Anyone have any input pro,con, or try this instead please let me know. Also want to talk to anyone interested in testifying before the legislative interim committee on this situation.

In Tarrant County the prosecutor in charge of these case is Lloyd Whelchel. I suggest you call him (say Richard Alpert suggested you call) at 817 884-3762. Good Luck

David Glickler at the Texas Attorney General's Office has tried several of these cases. You should give him a call.

We tried an 8 liner case last year against one of the bigger "casino" establishments. We were successful. The case is now on appeal. I had never tried an 8 liner case and I found the AG's office to be indispensable. Give them a call. They can tell you what the current trend is in the defense of the cases. If you contact them you will be well prepared when you go into court. We had no surprises.

J Cleveland
Denton County

Randall, give me a call at 512-463-3088.

David

I would second giving David a call, he helped me close three establishments in my community and we obtained guilty pleas and forfeited the equipment in all instances.

John L. Pool
County & District Attorney
Andrews, Texas

Thanks for the information and help!!!!

As was recently mentioned in "Issues in Prosecution," the Texas Supremes have now thrown themselves into the 8-liner briar patch. For another article, see this link:

DMN article

Also, the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence will be coming out with its interim report on 8-liners sometime in the next few months. I'll provide a link to that report when it is available on-line.

The mistake of fact defense became more difficult to utilize after Legere, 82 S.W.3d 105. That case also represents the successful bumping of the offense to a felony. That could be quite important since the defendant can hardly count on automatic suspension of the sentence.