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twitterLOOKING IN ON: JUSTICE:
Casinos say former NBA star owes $822,500 in gambling debts
Walker charged with three felony counts of bad checks
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Walker
The district attorney’s office has filed a criminal complaint against former NBA all-star Antoine Walker alleging he failed to pay back $822,500 in gambling debts at three Las Vegas casinos.
Walker, who last played in the NBA for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2008, made the all-star team three times as a member of the Boston Celtics. He also was on the Miami Heat team that won the championship in 2006. Walker was on a national championship team while in college too, as a starting forward for the University of Kentucky in 1996.
The complaint charges Walker, 32, who wants to return to the NBA, with three felony counts in passing $1 million in bad checks while taking out the markers at Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood and Red Rock Resort. By law, gambling debts in Nevada are handled as bad check cases.
According to a copy of the complaint obtained by the Sun, Walker obtained gambling markers by writing 10 separate $100,000 checks with insufficient funds at the casinos from July 27 to Jan. 19.
Six of the checks were made out to Caesars Palace and two each to Planet Hollywood and Red Rock Resort, the complaint says.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Bernie Zadrowski, who runs the bad check unit, is asking a Las Vegas justice of the peace for a warrant to arrest Walker.
Zadrowski says Walker has paid back some of the $1 million in markers, but in addition to the $822,500 still owed to the casinos, Walker now owes the district attorney’s office $82,550 in fees for taking on the criminal prosecution, which the three casinos requested.
One of Walker’s Las Vegas attorneys, Jonathan Powell, declined to comment.
This is the second brush with the law for Walker this year. He was charged with suspected drunken driving in Miami Beach in January.
Two years ago Walker and a relative were bound at gunpoint while robbers took a car, cash and jewelry from his suburban Chicago home. Four men were later charged in the case.
•••
Last week’s federal racketeering convictions of five members of the Aryan Warriors prison gang is a victory all the way around for law enforcement authorities.
It demonstrates, among other things, that those authorities can and will work together across jurisdictional lines for years on a major case.
One of the key members of the federal prosecution team was Thom Gover, a senior deputy with the Nevada attorney general’s office. Gover was deputized as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the case and presented a large portion of the evidence during the seven-week trial. He worked closely with the lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Bliss.
Gover’s presence in the case could prove significant as state prison officials deal with fallout from the trial in the months ahead, mainly the allegations that the Aryan Warriors corrupted corrections officers.
After the verdict, Nevada Prison Director Howard Skolnik issued a statement pledging to continue to aggressively investigate allegations of misconduct within his ranks.
Federal authorities are expected to keep the heat on the corrections officers, too.
•••
The county’s district judges have selected Steve Grierson to succeed Ed Friedland as court executive at District Court.
The position, which oversees the daily operations of the courts at the Regional Justice Center, has an annual salary range of $107,016 to $153,608.
“I’m honored,” says Grierson, who will have to negotiate his own salary deal. “I’m excited about the opportunity to serve a great group of judges.”
Las Vegas justices of the peace are to meet Thursday to decide whether to hand over the reins of the lower court to Grierson as well.
The County Commission will have the final word on his future.
Jeff German Jeff German is the Sun’s senior investigative reporter.
Discussion: 27 comments so far…
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DA !!.....jail him
No, help him get an NBA job so da man can pay his bill!! You know play with big balls and step up!
"...Walker now owes the district attorney's office $82,550 in fees for taking on the criminal prosecution, which the three casinos requested."
Why does the DA's office get paid fees? It is the public prosecutor, not a private law firm. Or...??
Pay attention, people -- this is the new, main source of revenue the state doesn't talk about much. It creates a debt out of thin air then treats a citizen as a debtor, which strips one of most rights.
About Grierson -- I'd feel "honored" to be offered a job sucking on the public teat for up to $153,608 a year as a glorified secretary.
what?
an nba player doing something wrong?
shocker.
Beyond comically sad..............
@ Killer B
It's a deterent for people to stop breaking the law. Fees are not reachable in a ll criminal cases, but I see nothing wrong with making the potential criminals liable for their crimes. The money goes in the coffers to fund both the prosecution and the to pay public defenders. Without the coffers, no one would represent the indigent defendant.
What happened to Ed Friedland??
Re: "Why does the DA's office get paid fees? It is the public prosecutor, not a private law firm. Or...??"
The fees they collect fund the entire bad check unit! Don't knock it. You don't pay one penny. If they didn't collect fees, you'd be whining about why we're paying a public office to collect private debts.
Is gambling addiction a illness or not?
If it is, how does society explain these proscutions?
If not, why do we bother to set up help-lines and other similar public services?
Could we decide, one way or the other?
It seems like we consider it an illness, until it costs a big business some money, and then we figure we have to enforce the debts anyway, otherwise we stand to damage a very large business and employer.
Whatever. Just glad that I hate to lose money to the extent that gambling is no fun at all.
Carrot Top, on the other hand, worth the money!
I like to gamble occasionally, The adrenaline rush is unique. The gambling addiction must be incredibly powerful for so many people to blow it by gaming their way into oblivian.
.
..
...Great Scott Watson..! Is this David Rogers the District Attorney double dipping... Issue a warrent for arrest during a one plus one foul shot..
..
.
.
..
...OOps David Rogers is on the Wynn XS story so solly..
..
.
Gambling debts should not be considered bad checks, that's ridiculous. Casinos are taking their own risks when they weigh up whether to give credit to a client. Time for this sleazy practice (the DA acting as the casino's debt collector) to be halted.
Let the casinos go after their own money in civil court. They deserve to loose the money for lending it to an NBA low-life. Another reason not to let the pimps and thugs of the NBA in town.
mred,
I could not agree more.
A couple of years back I was on a plane heading back from Chicago at the start of NBA all thug weekend.
The Captain came over the loud speaker and stopped the selling of alcohol and asked for people to settle down. This was approx. over Denver.
I knew then LV was going to be in for a wild ride.
BTW, the carry-on baggage was shopping bags, garbage bags and such. I guess those "fans" could afford to get drunk and ruin a city but couldn't afford luggage.
The perils of gambling addiction are very COSTLY.
Just because someone might have an addiction doesn't mean they can engage in illegal behavior without facing consequences. If a crackhead shoots someone, they'll still be tried for murder. If a gambling addict writes bad checks, it is a crime and they will be prosecuted.
Although, the casinos work very hard to settle first, and will often settle for pennies on the dollar or payment plans. They also have collection departments that try very hard to get payments before the debt is reported to the DA.
This guy needs to buy an Escalade for a chain restaurant waitress. End of problems.
You might want to get ready for a few more of these stories in the next two years.
The NBA Players Association is going to get locked out and there won't be a 2011 season for the NBA.
The economy demands that the NBA owners adjust ticket prices and salaries. The Players Association is going to fight on principle, but lose because millionaires can't beat billionaires.
And 97% of these millionaire players are only millionaires on paper. They've usually spent everything already. They can't afford to miss too many paychecks. The owners will sit on their fortunes and break the NBAPA.
Since the players won't get paid in 2011 because of the lockout - which from what I've been told by an NBA employee is 100% certainly going to happen - then you're going to see a lot of NBA players unable to pay their debts. I'm sure there are a few unpaid markers in Las Vegas for current players that aren't being reported right now.
Why do the players have to take a paycut? Because it's the owners who pay them and they decide which economic model to use. If they crunched the numbers and said it will only work if the salaries go down then that's how it works. If the owners were flat out greedy (which they could be - who knows?) then they could just say you're taking a pay cut and using the recession as an excuse. Whatever the reason - right or wrong - the 2011 lockout is coming.
These guys spend their millions as fast as they get them. It's too bad they don't put some away for a rainy day, but it is what it is.
..."They also have collection departments that try very hard to get payments before the debt is reported to the DA."
By henderson
Who are you kidding ? It is a lot easier to let the DA'S office go after late markers...then have the Casinos do it in Civil court..where THEY would have to spend the resources to collect on something that more then likely shouldnt have been issued in the 1st place...
Feel sorry for the CASINOS not hardly !!!We need to change the law and make the Casinos do their
own work...
ask anyone that had to work the graveyard shift at the peppermill during all star weekend if they think having an nba team in vegas is a good idea.
Only in Nevada are there still debtor prisons. I wonder when the credit card companies will try and get this same privelage that the casinos get?
lvcorvette,
I'm not sure why you think I would make that up, but it's absolutely true. Casinos know that they stand a better chance by being nice to the customer and hope for at least some money back. By the time the DA gets involved these people are so broke they can't pay attention.
Believe me, they prefer to collect on the markers rather than turn it over to the DA.
These Casinos need to be held responsible for letting people incur this kind of debt. Instead, they make a media circus out of it and have the DA turn into a collection agency.
Just another thing that's a fraud about this town. And to think our Mayor actually thinks a professional sports team will EVER want to come here.
I must be missing something when people are calling the DA a collection agency. Last time I knew writing bad checks is a criminal offense! Walker wrote bad checks to the casinos. What else is there to understand or whine about?
These policies need to be the same for all businesses that accept checks but instead they set a double standard and give preference to Casino's when it comes to Bad Checks but in reality the casino's have a problem with a defaulted loan due to non payment of credit they issued to a Gambler. Legitimate claims from small local businesses that are for an actual bad check are hardly ever prosecuted or collected because of the dollar signs they see when it comes to Casino Debt's
In there Handbook for Businesses it clearly states..
We cannot prosecute any of the following types of checks:
Checks that are pre-dated or post-dated, or where an agreement was made to hold the check for later payment.
Checks, other than to a licensed gaming establishment, for which you have later accepted partial payment.
Checks involving an extension of credit, other than to a licensed gaming establishment.
Here is what the Handbook for Businesses has in there Checklist for Cashiers
3. Checks must be dated the same day they are given. Postdated checks cannot,and will not, be prosecuted. You take them at your own risk.
Wouldn't this be the same as a Cashier in the cage at a casino? Or are they called money attendants instead of cashier's?