More Dallas poker trials moving through the courts … and sure enough, more cases being dismissed. But there seems to be more to it all than simply a DA\’s not wanting to punish poker players. Wes in Dallas (Plano?), for example, wasn\’t surprised that his case was dismissed … but he did find the reason for dismissal — insufficient evidence — a little peculiar considering that DPD put undercover officers in the game and the raid itself was videotaped.
Pokerati:
Thought you might be interested in this. I just had my trial for the gambling ticket I got when Jackie\’s was raided.
In municipal court the procedure is as follows. On the day of your trial you arrive and answer a roll call. The state announces \”ready,\” \”ready pending,\” or \”not ready.\” \”Ready\” means the witnesses are there and they are prepared to start. \”Ready pending\” means they need time to get their witnesses there. they are typically given one hour, but can get more time if they need it. Court is then recesses for one hour. After that there is another roll call. The state then announces \”ready,\” \”WU,\” or \”IE.\” \”WU\” means they cannot get their witness there and results in a dismissal. \”IE\” means they can get their witness there, but, nevertheless, have insufficient evidence to go to trial. This also results in a dismissal.
In my case the state announced IE and my case was dismissed.
Now, my larger point. The foregoing means that the city attorney could get the arresting officer to trial, but there was still insufficient evidence to go to trial. So the DPD managed to bring a camera crew, have perhaps twenty officers on the scene, have the SWAT team bust through the window, destroy thousands of dollars in property, and risk injury to officers and everyone in the room, but they could not gather enough evidence to prosecute the offense which was the ostensible reason for the raid. They risked the lives of the officers and the people in the room, including a few grandmothers, but did not even try to gather evidence to be used in a trial. To my knowledge, they have not gone to trial on any of the arrests that night, even for those accused of running a gambling room.
So the stated reason for the raids is an obvious sham and lives were put at risk for either no reason or an unstated one.
Wes
Very interesting. It\’s gotta be the money they are after, no? According to Texas forfeiture laws, I think, any cash confiscated during a poker raid — and then surrendered during plea bargains– goes back into police coffers … with a large percentage of it earmarked for future poker raids, but some of it going to … um … not sure where.