MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A $64 million jury verdict against VictoryLand casino and its owner won’t be affected by the Macon County sheriff being dropped from the litigation, attorneys said Tuesday.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge approved an agreement between all the parties that gets Sheriff David Warren out of the case going forward.
Lucky Palace and 15 charities sued VictoryLand, its owner Milton McGregor and Warren after the sheriff refused to issue the casino a license to operate charitable electronic bingo across the street from VictoryLand at the Shorter exit on Interstate 85. Lucky Palace and the charities argued that the three worked together to keep a second casino out of the central Alabama county.
A federal court jury in May returned the verdict against McGregor and his casino after ruling that they intentionally interfered with Lucky Palace’s efforts. The jury ruled the sheriff misinterpreted the county’s rules for developing additional electronic bingo casinos, but he did not face any monetary damages.
Warren’s attorney, James Anderson, asked to have the sheriff dropped from the litigation, and attorneys for the charities that would have benefitted from the Lucky Palace casino agreed to go along with the request. Attorneys for McGregor and VictoryLand filed court papers Monday saying they didn’t object.
Also dropped Tuesday were allegations of conspiracy against McGregor, VictoryLand and the sheriff.
Anderson said the sheriff was delighted to put the suit behind him because there was no evidence that he engaged in a conspiracy with VictoryLand or McGregor to violate the rights of the potential competition for VictoryLand.
An attorney for the charities, Bob Spotswood, said, “There was always a question in our minds about whether Sheriff Warren was part of a conspiracy or was duped by a conspiracy that did not include him.”
Anderson and Spotswood said the sheriff’s removal from the case doesn’t affect the jury’s verdict against McGregor and VictoryLand.
The trial judge, Keith Watkins, has not yet ruled if the verdict against McGregor and VictoryLand will stand or will be cut.
VictoryLand was the only casino in Macon County and was the largest in the state, with 6,400 electronic games, before forced to shut down its games in August 2010. The closure resulted from then-Gov. Bob Riley’s crackdown on what he said were illegal slot machines posing as electronic bingo.
McGregor also closed his luxury hotel and restaurants and ended live dog racing at VictoryLand. It has limped along with simulcast dog and horse races, but it hasn’t generated enough money to pay the property taxes on the $200 million complex or the construction loan for the hotel, according to trial testimony.
Anderson said the sheriff wants to get gambling restarted in the county and will work to clarify the county’s rules about what’s needed to open a casino that benefits local charities. He said Anderson wants the revised rules to make it clear that a casino must represent a substantial investment in the rural county. “He doesn’t want someone to throw up a metal building,” Anderson said.
Currently, the Poarch Creek Indians operate electronic bingo casinos in Atmore, Wetumpka and Montgomery. Private operators have games in Dothan, White Hall and Eutaw. None of the operations have table games like the casinos in neighboring Mississippi.
