Topeka Gambling Bust

http://cjonline.com/stories/093008/bre_ownerarrest.shtml

By Ann Marie Bush

The Capital-Journal Published Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 4:31 p.m. CDT


The owner of Deep Pockets was arrested on four charges of commercial gambling Monday, said Topeka police Capt. Jerry Stanley.


Frank Thomas Antonelli, owner of Deep Pockets, 4310 SW 21st, was arrested on four charges of commercial gambling Monday.
Frank Thomas Antonelli, 60, of Topeka, was booked into the Shawnee County jail at 9:10 p.m. Monday, according to jail records.
“It was an extensive investigation,” Stanley said, but wouldn’t say how long it lasted.
Officers seized many items of evidence, including several poker-related items, Stanley said.
District Attorney Robert Hecht said in a news release that items seized include cards, poker chips, poker tables, black jack tables, cash, computers and firearms.
“The district attorney’s office is presently preparing civil cases to seek to cause the removal of Deep Pockets Inc. and its owners Frank Thomas Antonelli and Christine Ann Antonelli from engaging in business at that location, determining that a criminal public nuisance has been created and to seek an injunction and padlock the premises,” the statement said.
The DA’s office also hopes to be able to tell the neighborhood around Deep Pockets that they will “no longer be subjected to the continuing criminal activity that has occurred at Deep Pockets in the nature of homicides, shootings and other kinds of violence that seem to have their genesis in premises where other illegal activities are ongoing.”
The statement also said that Antonelli was arrested on a complaint by the DA’s office charging him with three counts of commercial gambling, a nonperson felony, and one county of misdemeanor gambling.
“The district attorney anticipates adding felony criminal charges to the complaint,” the release states.
The Topeka police narcotics and vice unit served the search warrant and arrest warrant at Deep Pockets on Monday.
Officers with the Topeka police response team, Shawnee Sheriff’s Department, Alcohol Beverage Control, DEA Task Force and Counter Drug Surveillance Operations Group assisted.
Commercial gambling is described in state law as operating or receiving all or part of the earnings of a gambling place; recording or forwarding bets or offers to bet or, with intent to receive, record or forward bets or offers to bet, possessing facilities to do so; for gain, becoming a custodian of anything of value bet or offered to be bet; conducting a lottery, or with intent to conduct a lottery possessing facilities to do so; or setting up for use or collecting the proceeds of any gambling device.