DATE: Tuesday, September 30, 1997           TAG: 9709300245

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:  101 lines

DEFENDANT IN BINGO CASE POINTS FINGER AT BOSSES ATTORNEY SAYS DEEP CREEK OFFICIALS KNEW GAMES WERE BEING RUN ILLEGALLY.

A lawyer defending George West, who is accused in an embezzlement scheme that may have siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from a youth baseball league, said in court Monday that Deep Creek Baseball Association officials knew the games were operating illegally.

``Once the court hears all the evidence, there will be no doubt that Deep Creek bingo was not in compliance with the law,'' said Attorney Patrick H. O'Donnell in his opening statement at West's trial. ``The game ran almost continuously in violation of Virginia law. It was not until the IRS launched an investigation that Deep Creek Baseball began covering their tracks.''

O'Donnell alleged that league officials knew workers in the volunteer games were being paid, which is a violation of state law. Money had to be generated in order to pay the workers, he said.

West ``had to generate money, and he had to do it in a way that it did not appear on the books,'' O'Donnell said.

He accused the association of trying to ``leave Mr. West out hanging in the wind.''

But during testimony Monday, Deep Creek officials testified that they were not aware of any illegal practices. The trial is expected to continue today.

Virginia Charitable Gaming Commission officials, who conducted the investigation that led to the charges against West, have said the baseball association is not to blame for the embezzlement - that it was a victim.

West, 52, the former manager of the youth baseball bingo association, is charged with seven counts of embezzlement and one count each of conspiracy to embezzle, operating an illegal gambling operation and cheating at gambling. He faces up to 161 years in prison if convicted.

On Monday, Danny Moore, president of the Deep Creek Baseball Association, testified that he never authorized any payment of workers and that West told him ``everything was being run legally.''

Donald Gwaltney, the league's former bingo trustee, testified that he had no ``direct knowledge'' that bingo workers were being paid and denied O'Donnell's allegation that he had tried to get workers to sign a paper saying they had never been paid.

One of the charges that prosecutors promised to prove on Monday was that West provided a player with inside information by pulling back the tabs on instant bingo tickets and giving him the winning ticket numbers.

Rogelio Legarda, a player who served briefly as league accountant, testified that West tipped him off to winning tickets during each bingo session between August 1996 and January 1997. He estimated West tipped him off 52 times.

``In those I'm losing, he tells me the number that will win, and I start buying those,'' Legarda testified. ``He only tells me if I'm losing.''

Legarda said he was one of the biggest instant bingo players at the association's games.

Legarda is expected to plead guilty on Oct. 10 to a misdemeanor of cheating in connection with those actions. In exchange, prosecutors are expected to not pursue a felony count of conspiring to embezzle.

Another prosecution witness, Lisa Simpson, testified that she was an avid bingo player for about five years but stopped playing temporarily because of cheating she thought was going on at the Deep Creek games.

She testified that Legarda won ``all the time.''

``When he was playing, I didn't play that much - because I knew I wouldn't win,'' she testified.

Simpson testified that there was always a stack of tickets for Legarda and then one from which other players could make purchases.

``If you'd go to buy them, they would say they had already been sold,'' she said of Legarda's stack. ``I knew if I bought what Roger was buying, I'd win, too. I was told I couldn't buy from that stack.''

She said she remembered a specific time when West told her she couldn't buy tickets in a stack that had been set aside. Legarda typically won about four times a night every night he played, she said.

Two people involved in the bingo scheme already have entered guilty pleas in court.

Jeffrey G. Moran, vice president of Baltimore-based bingo supplier Frank Moran and Sons, was convicted Sept. 11 of falsifying a gaming invoice. He was ordered to pay restitution of $24,310 to Deep Creek Baseball Association and was given a 12-month suspended sentence.

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.

Keith H. Ward, 64, of Chesapeake, a former employee for Moran and Sons, pleaded guilty last week to falsifying documents submitted to a state agency. He was sentenced to six months in jail, all suspended, with no fine.

Originally charged with embezzlement, a felony, both Moran and Ward pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges. Both men testified for the prosecution on Monday.

The Deep Creek youth baseball league has filed a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against five people and Moran and Sons, claiming they embezzled more than $1 million from their program.

According to prosecutors and court documents, West asked Ward and Moran in September 1996 to record his purchase of instant bingo tickets - known as ``pull-tabs'' - as paint pens. They did, creating a false document that allowed Moran to keep the sale and West to use the tickets for his own gain without having to report the purchase of tickets to the state Charitable Gaming Commission, officials said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

IAN MARTIN/The Virginian-Pilot

George West is accused of participating in a scheme by which

hundreds of thousands of dollars may have been embezzled from the

Deep Creek Baseball Association. KEYWORDS: TRIAL EMBEZZLEMENT

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