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MagicTimes: Jason, thanks for answering some questions.
Jason England: Just let me say at the onset that Steve asked me to leave it alone, but I feel strongly that some things need to be said for the record so he agreed under one condition: that I not mention the names of anyone involved.
MagicTimes: Okay, can you tell us what the case was all about?
England: It's actually easier to tell you what this case was not about. It was not about the casino industry or any casino games, it had nothing to do with cardrooms, the WSOP or any other tournament for that matter. In fact, regardless of what you may have heard, this case had nothing to do with poker!
This was a personal matter between the principal defendant and a police informant. According to this defendant, and witness corroboration that was to be presented at trial, the informant had cheated him on several occasions, bragged about it, and then invited the defendant back to AC to gamble in his suite at the Borgata. This is what the case is all about.
In June 2007 this defendant flew to A.C. from the West Coast. Three other men joined him including Steve who drove up to A.C. from Boston where he was visiting his sister. While in another hotel room with three of the defendants–not the informant's suite–the authorities knocked down the door, raided the room, put guns to everyone's heads and made the arrests. It was a setup!
MagicTimes: But what about the game?
England: There never was a game. It's probably the biggest misconception in this entire case for a variety of reasons, but the truth is that there was no game, not a single card was ever dealt, nor a single die ever cast.
The indictment consisted of a single charge: attempted theft by deception. There was no charge of cheating, possession of cheating equipment, or conspiracy. The legal definition of attempted theft by deception can also encompass the planning stages of a crime; you don't have to be "in progress," so to speak.
MagicTimes: Are you saying the arrests were made based on what the police believed to be the planning stages of a crime?
England: Yes, that was the position of the authorities.
MagicTimes: But why would the police make arrests before there was even a game?
England: That's a good question and one we'll probably never really know the answer to. The defense believed that the police made the arrests because they knew that one or more defendants were leaving and they wanted to cast the largest net possible. Though this is not the place to expound on this, I'll just say that this information came from a government source and could have caused all kinds of problems for the prosecution.
MagicTimes: If there never was a game, how could there be a victim?
England: Well, in the strictest sense, there was no victim. The indictment referenced a single person with the initials J.H., alleging that he was to be the target in a future game.
MagicTimes: Can you tell us who J.H. is?
England: I could, but it isn't important for the sake of this interview. I can tell you that he was previously an acquaintance of the principal defendant, and that they met and talked after the arrests (a fact not known to the authorities). Another interesting thing regarding J.H. is that over a period of approximately 26 months, the New Jersey authorities never met with this person. Not once! According to the discovery, the police had a single, short phone conversation early in the investigation and that was it.
MagicTimes: Can you tell us anything about the informant?
England: Only that he is a convicted con man who was sentenced to 15 years for bilking investors in a stock scam some years back. His claims regarding this case were preposterous and in many cases technically and literally impossible. All of these claims were shown to be ridiculous in my certification to the attorneys.
FULL STORY AT MAGIC TIMES NEWS