Monday, January 22, 2007

Eight men face more than 100 charges in Wise County for allegedly operating
illegal gambling houses along the town of Appalachia's Main Street.
While the buildings were vacant by day, prosecutors allege, they were a hive
of clandestine activity at night as card players and gamblers looking to
place bets on sporting events made their way to the back rooms. The eight
men were indicted by a special grand jury and more indictments will follow,
said special prosecutor David Childers. "We are going after the organizers,
the bigwigs. We're not going after the patrons." Childers declined to be
specific about how many people frequented the covert gaming houses over the
years, but said, "It was a lot, a very, very lot." According to indictments
handed up late Tuesday, each of the eight men faces a charge of operating a
continuous gambling enterprise. One is accused of running a gaming operation
for nearly five years, from Sept. 11, 2001, to May 6, 2006. Other charges
included in the indictments are money laundering, supervising an illegal
gambling operation, conducting transactions with illegal gambling proceeds
and possessing gaming devices. When authorities shuttered the gambling
houses in May, they seized more than $400,000. Special prosecutors' probe of
illicit gambling in Appalachia (population 1,839) grew out of an
investigation of corruption in the mayor's office and Town Hall. As a result
of that investigation, last month eight town leaders -- including a former
mayor, a former town police captain, a leader of the local rescue squad, a
former Town Hall employee and two uncles of a former town councilman --
pleaded guilty to their roles in stealing the May 2004 town election.

Prosecutors have alleged that former Mayor Ben Cooper and others wanted
control of Town Hall and the police force partly so that the illegal
gambling could continue unchecked. None of those involved in the election
fraud were named in the gambling indictments.

Cooper pleaded guilty to 233 felony counts involving vote fraud and was
convicted by a judge of 10 more. He is to be sentenced today and faces up to
21 years in prison.