Virginian-Pilot


DATE: Friday, September 12, 1997            TAG: 9709120607

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:  115 lines




MAN PLEADS GUILTY IN BINGO CASE CHESAPEAKE YOUTH BASEBALL TO GET $24,310 FROM HIS FINE.

A bingo supplier - one of four men accused in an embezzlement scheme that may have diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars away from youth baseball - pleaded guilty Thursday to falsifying a gaming invoice.

Jeffrey G. Moran, 37, who is sales manager for Frank Moran and Sons Inc., of Baltimore, was sentenced to 12 months in jail, with all the time suspended. He also was ordered to pay restitution of $24,310 to the Deep Creek Baseball Association in the amount of $2,000 a month beginning in January.

The $24,310 represents the amount of money the baseball association did not receive from the 13 cases of instant tickets involved in the transaction.

Moran entered what is known as an Alford plea: He did not admit to the crime but acknowledged that the evidence against him would be sufficient for a conviction.

Danny Moore, president of the baseball association, was in Circuit Court Thursday to watch the results of the investigation handled by the Virginia Charitable Gaming Commission.

``We're pleased,'' he said afterward. ``We've got a long ways to go. It will mean that the money can be put away for the building of fields. Every time we win one of these cases, we come a little bit closer to buying that land. . . . Justice is beginning to be served.''

Deep Creek officials had hoped to build a $1 million baseball complex. They wanted a permanent place for their approximately 600 players to play instead of the city fields they use now.

Moore said the organization also expects to file a civil suit by the end of the month or early next month.

``The Deep Creek Baseball Association did nothing wrong,'' said John R. Cencich, a special agent with the gaming commission who led the investigation. ``They were simply a victim of the crime. . . . They worked 100 percent with us.''

``This is a warning shot to those who steal and act unlawfully in connection with Virginia's charitable games,'' Edward J. Fuhr, chairman of the Virginia Charitable Gaming Commission, said in a written statement on Thursday. ``We will follow the evidence wherever it leads.''

In South Hampton Roads, charitable gambling organizations collected almost $50 million in the 1996 fiscal year and spent about $3.7 million of that for charitable purposes. The commission regulates gaming operations throughout the state.

Moran originally was charged with a felony count of embezzling, which carried a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison. However, if convicted on that charge, guidelines would have called for probation. His plea Thursday was to a misdemeanor.

In court, Russ Stone, an assistant attorney general, outlined for the judge the evidence his office would have presented had the matter gone to trial.

On Sept. 12, 1996, George West, then manager of Deep Creek Baseball's bingo operation, purchased instant tickets from a local employee of the Maryland bingo supplier.

West asked Keith H. Ward, the employee, to document the sale as being for daubers, markers used for bingo cards. Authorities allege that the altered documents were part of West's plan to personally profit from the sale of instant tickets.

Ward said he would have to get permission from his supervisor, Jeff Moran, to do so. Moran gave that permission.

Later, special agent Cencich traveled to Maryland to question Moran.

``He first denied knowledge of the transaction in question, then admitted he gave permission to Ward and said he knew that West was hiding the profits,'' Stone said of that conversation between Cencich and Moran.

But defense lawyers representing Moran offered a slightly different version after the court hearing.

``Mr. Moran at no time had any knowledge that any proceeds would be diverted from the charity,'' said David M. Silbiger, a Baltimore attorney.

Although the copy of the invoice that West walked away with reported only the purchase of daubers, Moran's copy contained information about the purchase of instant tickets, said Stanley Sacks, another attorney representing Moran.

``To save the sale, he was willing to do it provided the invoice also showed tickets along with daubers,'' Sacks said. ``But because it said daubers and daubers weren't sold, it was improperly documented.''

However, when the company's clerical workers reported the purchase to the gaming commission, they failed to report the tickets, mentioning only daubers, Sacks said.

The gambling tickets involved, called ``pull-tabs,'' are similar to instant tickets sold by the Virginia Lottery. The tickets typically are sold for $1 apiece, and each box contained a predetermined number of winners. A player buys a ticket, pulls back each of the five tabs and knows instantly if it is a winner.

Moran has been asked to return to the courtroom later this month for West's trial. West, who managed the Deep Creek Baseball bingo operation for 3 1/2 years until he was dismissed in February, is slated for trial on Sept. 29. He faces 10 charges including seven counts of embezzlement, one count of winning by fraud, one count of conspiring to embezzle and one count of gambling.

West, of the 1400 block of Clemsford Court in Virginia Beach, allegedly bought instant bingo tickets with several checks from the baseball association and disposed of them in an unauthorized way between May 1996 and February 1997.

Through his attorney, West has said he did not embezzle money from anyone.

Rogelio R. Legarda, a player who briefly served as accountant for the baseball association, is set for trial on Oct. 10 on charges connected to winning by fraud and embezzlement for receiving instant winning ticket numbers from West in advance of the game.

Ward, the local employee of the bingo supplier, was set for trial on Sept. 23, but that date is expected to be postponed. Ward, who lives in Chesapeake, is charged with disposing of, concealing or embezzling a check belonging to the baseball organization.

His attorney, Steven Lieberman, has said that he expects the evidence to show that Ward was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and was not involved in any criminal activity.

The gaming commission's investigation was prompted after it received citizen complaints in July 1996. ILLUSTRATION: Drawing

ALBA BRAGOLI/Illustration

Bingo supplier Jeffrey G. Moran, seated, represented by attorney

Stanley Sacks pleaded guilty to authorizing the sale of instant

tickets as bingo markers, or daubers. Under the plea, Moran did not

admit to the crime. KEYWORDS: TIMELINE CHRONOLOGY BINGO LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL



[home] [ETDs] [Image Base] [journals] [VA News] [VTDL] [Online Course Materials] [Publications]

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu
by CNB