Former casino executive acquitted in Missouri River dredging case

Monday, March 13, 2000 | 9:38 a.m.

Jurors deliberated for 12 hours over two days before acquitting James Rockar, once vice president at Station Casino St. Charles, of all five charges in a federal indictment last year.

"You're supposed to be happy," his lawyer, Rudy Rivera Jr., told him after jurors left the courtroom Friday night.

"You don't know what a relief it is," Rockar replied.

Federal prosecutors and the Environmental Protection Agency had accused Rockar of dredging river silt and mud from the river near the casino. Authorities said that casino employees had failed to deposit the materials on shore. They also said that workers dredged the mud from one spot in the river and dumped it on another.

Rockar, 49, testified this week in U.S. District Court in St. Louis that he believed the material hauled from the river had been properly deposited.

Authorities say they believed the dumping was done between August 1998 and early last year.

In December, Station Casino agreed in a related case to pay the government $555,000 to settle the claim that it violated federal cleanwater law by dumping fill material into the river.

The government's civil complaint, prepared by the Justice Department, said the casino operator had violated a dredging permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers. The complaint was filed against St. Charles Riverfront Station, Inc.

Rockar had been the casino vice president, overseeing an expansion at the casino complex on the St. Charles riverfront.