Tad Decker, who chaired the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board when it awarded slot-machine casino licenses in December 2006, said the transcript of an FBI wiretap would have prompted the agency to delay a vote on Louis A. DeNaples' application until it had fully investigated the implications.
Instead, state police officials told gaming board investigators that the contents of the transcript were not relevant to a background investigation of DeNaples.
Hours before the gaming board voted to award casino licenses to DeNaples and 10 others, police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller gave the gaming board a letter in response to the board's last-minute requests for information. In it, Miller wrote that the state police had "provided present relevant information on applicants" and that regulators "should be in a position to properly ... determine an applicant's suitability for a gaming license."
Decker, in a letter published in Thursday's editions of The Philadelphia Inquirer, characterized the state police's actions as a "misrepresentation" that violated the slot-machine gambling law and agreements with the board and the governor. Not telling the gaming board about the wiretap "did a terrible disservice to the commonwealth's citizens," Decker wrote.
Decker told The Associated Press on Thursday that the gaming board did not get information that was important to its vetting process.
"Because of what (the state police) did, it was an embarrassment of issuing a license to someone who potentially - potentially - may have done something wrong in the process," Decker said.
DeNaples, who pleaded no contest to a felony charge of conspiracy to defraud the federal government in 1978, is a prolific donor to charitable causes and political campaigns.
In October, he opened Mount Airy Casino Resort in the Pocono Mountains. On Jan. 30, state police filed four perjury charges against him, accusing the wealthy Scranton-area businessman of lying to gaming board investigators to win the casino license.
DeNaples' attorneys say he is innocent, and have vowed to fight the charges in court.
The state's slots law authorizes the gaming board to receive information from law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement agencies, however, do not consider the gaming board to be a fellow criminal justice agency that can be privy to investigative files.
Sgt. Bruce Edwards, the president of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, said the gaming board had had enough information as it was to deny a license to DeNaples, or at least delay a vote.
Instead, the gaming board was in a rush to award licenses to help fulfill political promises that the legalization of slot machines would deliver tax cuts, Edwards said.
"There were all kinds of reasons they had to deny or delay the license and they didn't and now when it blows up they want to point at us," said Edwards, whose organization is suing to ensure that troopers perform the background checks.
Decker insisted that the gaming board had no evidence to find DeNaples unsuitable - other than that withheld by the state police.
State police officials, who declined to respond to Decker's letter Thursday, have said they did not disclose the transcript because it had prompted a perjury investigation into DeNaples, and they were worried that sharing it would compromise the probe.
State police officials also have said a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia agreed with their investigators that the information was not relevant. Sharing it with the gaming board would have required approval from a federal judge.
The perjury charges allege that DeNaples lied to gaming board investigators about the extent of his relationships with four men, including two reputed mobsters and two men at the center of a federal corruption investigation in Philadelphia.
The transcript details a July 2002 conversation between DeNaples and Shamsud-din Ali, who was later convicted in the Philadelphia probe.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) BC-PA--Casino Owner-Perjury Charges, 2nd Ld-Writethru,0675 Former gaming chairman says police should have shared FBI wiretap Eds: ADDS comment, detail, background.
By MARC LEVY Associated Press Writer HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - State police violated the law and an agreement to cooperate in background checks of prospective casino owners when they decided not to share information used to charge a successful applicant with perjury, the state's former gaming board chairman said.
Tad Decker, who chaired the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board when it awarded slot-machine casino licenses in December 2006, said the transcript of an FBI wiretap would have prompted the agency to delay a vote on Louis A. DeNaples' application until it had fully investigated the implications.
Instead, state police officials told gaming board investigators that the contents of the transcript were not relevant to a background investigation of DeNaples.
Hours before the gaming board voted to award casino licenses to DeNaples and 10 others, police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller gave the gaming board a letter in response to the board's last-minute requests for information. In it, Miller wrote that the state police had "provided present relevant information on applicants" and that regulators "should be in a position to properly ... determine an applicant's suitability for a gaming license."
Decker, in a letter published in Thursday's editions of The Philadelphia Inquirer, characterized the state police's actions as a "misrepresentation" that violated the slot-machine gambling law and agreements with the board and the governor. Not telling the gaming board about the wiretap "did a terrible disservice to the commonwealth's citizens," Decker wrote.
Decker told The Associated Press on Thursday that the gaming board did not get information that was important to its vetting process.
"Because of what (the state police) did, it was an embarrassment of issuing a license to someone who potentially - potentially - may have done something wrong in the process," Decker said.
DeNaples, who pleaded no contest to a felony charge of conspiracy to defraud the federal government in 1978, is a prolific donor to charitable causes and political campaigns.
In October, he opened Mount Airy Casino Resort in the Pocono Mountains. On Jan. 30, state police filed four perjury charges against him, accusing the wealthy Scranton-area businessman of lying to gaming board investigators to win the casino license.
DeNaples' attorneys say he is innocent, and have vowed to fight the charges in court.
The state's slots law authorizes the gaming board to receive information from law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement agencies, however, do not consider the gaming board to be a fellow criminal justice agency that can be privy to investigative files.
Sgt. Bruce Edwards, the president of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, said the gaming board had had enough information as it was to deny a license to DeNaples, or at least delay a vote.
Instead, the gaming board was in a rush to award licenses to help fulfill political promises that the legalization of slot machines would deliver tax cuts, Edwards said.
"There were all kinds of reasons they had to deny or delay the license and they didn't and now when it blows up they want to point at us," said Edwards, whose organization is suing to ensure that troopers perform the background checks.
Decker insisted that the gaming board had no evidence to find DeNaples unsuitable - other than that withheld by the state police.
State police officials, who declined to respond to Decker's letter Thursday, have said they did not disclose the transcript because it had prompted a perjury investigation into DeNaples, and they were worried that sharing it would compromise the probe.
State police officials also have said a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia agreed with their investigators that the information was not relevant. Sharing it with the gaming board would have required approval from a federal judge.
The perjury charges allege that DeNaples lied to gaming board investigators about the extent of his relationships with four men, including two reputed mobsters and two men at the center of a federal corruption investigation in Philadelphia.
The transcript details a July 2002 conversation between DeNaples and Shamsud-din Ali, who was later convicted in the Philadelphia probe.
