Judge refuses to block feds from claiming casino site

Steve Lawrence

Thursday, Aug. 7, 2003 | 9:13 a.m.

SACRAMENTO -- A federal judge refused Wednesday to prevent a landless Sonoma County Indian tribe from taking over a San Pablo card room, a step opponents fear could lead to a Las Vegas-style casino in the midst of the San Francisco metropolitan area.

U.S. District Judge David Levi denied a request for a preliminary injunction blocking U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton from taking the Casino San Pablo site into trust as a reservation for the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians.

"None of the plaintiffs' arguments establishes that (they) will experience significant hardship if the secretary takes the land into trust," Levi said in a 28-page ruling.

"Their claim for injunctive relief preventing such a transfer is weak partly because merely taking the land into trust is not the source of the plaintiff's alleged injury."

A group of card rooms and charities requested the injunction as part of a lawsuit challenging the takeover, claiming the tribe's plans to conduct gambling at the card room would, among other things, deny them equal constitutional protections.

"We maintain that the Lytton fail to qualify as a tribe and therefore cannot be given this land into trust and certainly should not be able to operate a Nevada-style casino in an urban area," Alan Titus, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said. "This lawsuit and our legal action is far from over."

Malcolm Lee, executive director of the Bay Area Rescue Mission in Richmond and one of a group of pastors opposed to the takeover, said it could lead to "further deterioration of the whole moral climate of the area."

But Tony Cohen, an attorney for the tribe, said San Pablo officials -- "the people best qualified to determine what is in the best interest of the city" -- supported the deal.

The plaintiffs said if the Indians took over the San Pablo facility they would be able to offer electronic bingo games with unlimited jackpots. Non-Indian card rooms can't offer any type of bingo and charitable groups are limited to $250 bingo jackpots, they said.

But Levi said there would be little real difference between the type of class II gambling currently conducted at the card room and the variety of games the tribe could offer without first negotiating a compact with the state that would allow them to have slot machines and other types of class III, Nevada-style gambling.

Levi said it was too early to raise the question of whether the plaintiffs would be hurt by the tribe offering class III gambling. Gov. Gray Davis could refuse to negotiate a compact with the tribe if he decided that level of gambling would be "detrimental to the surrounding community," Levi added.

Davis has expressed opposition to urban casinos.

Cohen contended that Davis would have no option but to negotiate a class III compact with the tribe, but he predicted Davis' opposition would weaken as he learns more about the tribe's arrangement with the city.

The Lyttons' investors have already purchased the card room in anticipation of it being transferred to the tribe, and the tribe and the city of San Pablo have signed a contract outlining, among other things, how the tribe will pay for city services.

Jeffrey Hamerling, another attorney for the plaintiffs, said they would decide in a week or so whether to appeal Levi's decision.

An appeal of Levi's ruling last year upholding California's Indian gambling law is scheduled to be heard Aug. 14 by a federal appeals court in San Francisco.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Edmund Brennan said he now expects the Interior Department to move "in the near future" to take over the San Pablo site for the tribe. He likened the process to "recording title on other pieces of property."