Thursday, October 28, 1999
Legion bust puts largess in limbo
Allegations similar to earlier charges
BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
WAYNESVILLE — What some locals call the “goose that laid the golden egg” may have run afoul of the law — again.
For the second time in less than two years, the American Legion Post 615, long known for generous donations to community and school ventures, faces a criminal investigation into gambling and illegal liquor sales in this dry community.
Its attorney said the veterans' gathering place could be targeted for racketeering charges this time.
Liquor agents raided the South Fourth Street hall at 11 a.m. Saturday, confiscating five video poker machines, tip tickets, a computer and printer, two cash registers, an assortment of beer, liquor and wine, financial records and $2,647.15 in proceeds from the gambling machines.
The Ohio Department of Public Safety Liquor-Food Stamp Enforcement Bureau also seized all of the legion's money, including $200,000 in certificates of deposit and a bank account at Lebanon Citizens National Bank worth $59,097.45.
The bust came 17 months after the legion was convicted and fined for liquor and gambling violations.
“We got complaints from cit izens of Waynesville saying it was still going on,” said Gary Sullivan, agent in charge of the state bureau's Cincinnati office. “We're taking it a little more seriously.”
No one answered the phone at the American Legion Wednesday. Legion Commander Gary Van Nuys, reached at his home, declined to comment on the investigation or any legion affairs.
The organization's Lebanon lawyer, William Kaufman, said the legion, left with no money and facing possible serious criminal charges, is out of business, except to open the hall for previously booked engagements.
He expects state agents to file a laundry list of gambling and liquor charges, including felony racketeering charges against members of the legion or the organization.
“They (veterans) like to get together and drink and gamble at games of chance,” Mr. Kaufman said. “They don't mind doing that and letting the post make a profit for it and donating those profits to charity.”
Confiscation of the legion's bank accounts means it can't make a final $62,000 payment on a $120,000 donation pledged for the high school's new football stadium.
The money was being used to pay off debt for construction of the $500,000 stadium. That concerns Michael Couch, who heads the non-profit fundraising committee.
“Obviously, everything is a major setback. But we have contingency plans in case one of our donors would not come through for us,” ' he said.
Besides the stadium, the organization contributed money for construc tion of a band shell and a village park. Members spent $25,000 constructing a new ball diamond for the village. The group donates $5,000 each year to the school district for reading materials and 200 food baskets to the needy each Thanksgiving and Christmas.
After the earlier raid in March 1998, village officials, from the police chief to council members, said it was no secret that alcohol was being served and sold at the legion hall and that gambling machines were set up on the premises.
“It's just kind of bad this has happened. This is a private club. They don't bother anybody. Nobody goes there except their members. Their doors are locked. If they want to go in there and drink, let them drink,” Mayor Charles Sanders said.
Mayor Sanders said he did not know anything about gambling at the establishment, despite the state raid and gambling charges in 1998.
In the earlier raid, state agents took $12,000 in cash, contents of a fully stocked bar and seven video gambling machines, which state agents said can generate $2,000 a week.
A plea bargain resulted in the legion, as an organization, pleading no contest to one misdemeanor count each of keeping a place where alcohol is sold, illegal sale of alcohol, keeping a gambling house and operating a game of chance.
The legion was fined about $3,000 and was ordered to make a charitable donation with some of the confiscated cash that was returned, Mr. Kaufman said. That contribution went to the school district, he said.
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