39 casino workers plead guilty to taking part in demonstration

John Curran

Thursday, March 31, 2005 | 9:45 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Thirty-nine casino hotel workers who participated in a sit-in during a strike in October pleaded guilty to reduced charges Wednesday, with a judge fining each $500. Their union is paying the fines.

In a Municipal Court hearing as orchestrated and orderly as the Oct. 8 protest, 34 of the 85 people originally charged with disorderly persons offenses in the case admitted violating Atlantic City's noise ordinance. Five others entered guilty pleas in absentia.

The rest will follow suit April 6 as part of a mass plea agreement negotiated by the city and Local 54 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, which waged the monthlong walkout at seven of the city's 12 casinos.

"We'd do it again in a minute," said Bally's Atlantic City food server Pat Wolozyinski, a 73-year-old great-grandmother. "It was necessary, it was effective and it helped us get a fair contract."

The protest, which came one week into the strike by about 10,000 rank-and-file casino hotel workers, began with a march by about 1,500 people. It culminated at a busy intersection where dozens -- who had volunteered in advance to be arrested -- held hands and then sat down.

The noisy but nonviolent demonstration, staged near the foot of the Atlantic City Expressway, snarled traffic entering the casino capital for the three-day Columbus Day weekend but didn't close the casinos.

The disorderly persons offenses could have led to 30-day jail terms if the protesters had gone to trial and been convicted. But the city wanted to avoid the time and expense of trials, and offered the pleas as a compromise, according to special prosecutor David Spitalnick.

Dismissing the charges outright was out of the question, he said.

"The word has to go out to the people that you can't tie up the city and bar everyone from exiting and entering," Spitalnick said. "In the event of a general alarm or fire, it would've been a disaster. The city won't stand for that kind of conduct."

Smiling and renewing strike-line friendships, the protesters watched in court Wednesday as defense attorney Arthur Murray played about five minutes of a videotape taken by police at the sit-in before calling each defendant forward and questioning them about their participation in the event.

Each was sworn in and admitted taking part before pleading guilty to the reduced charge, which came with a $500 fine and $33 in court costs.

Chhitu Patel, 66, a room service attendant at Tropicana had dressed as Mahatma Gandhi at the demonstration, wearing a white robe, sandals and eyeglasses, his head shaved so he could more closely resemble Gandhi.

His hair grown in, his robe replaced by an open-necked sport shirt and slacks, he took his turn before Judge Louis Belasco before returning to his seat to watch the rest of the one-hour proceeding.

Also in court was Alana Lawless, 49, a former casino employee who joined the protest because she sympathized with the strikers.

"I missed the '60s. I was too young," she said outside court. "I never got a chance to be an activist or a protester, but these people showed solidarity. It was history in the making, and I wanted to be a part of it," said Lawless.

"I'm a bit of an odd duck," she said.

Three union leaders still face contempt-of-court charges for violating police orders by walking in the street during an Oct. 15 march.