Culley v. Office of the Director of Regulation

6 Am. Tribal Law 605, 3 G.D.R. 28
CourtMohegan Gaming Disputes Trial Court
DecidedMay 17, 2006
DocketNo. GDTC-AA-05-118-FOE
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 6 Am. Tribal Law 605 (Culley v. Office of the Director of Regulation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mohegan Gaming Disputes Trial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Culley v. Office of the Director of Regulation, 6 Am. Tribal Law 605, 3 G.D.R. 28 (Mo. 2006).

Opinion

BACKGROUND

EAGAN, Judge.

A. The Administrative Proceeding

The plaintiff brought the present action challenging the revocation of his gaming license for his alleged theft of $2,000.00 jackpot from a Kiosk machine in the Mo hegan Sun Casino, where plaintiff was em - ployed as a Slot Floor Supervisor. It is undisputed that at approximately 1:30 a.m. on April 19, 2005, plaintiff was assisting a Slot Attendant to pay a $2,000.00 jackpot to a patron. Both the plaintiff and the Slot Attendant proceeded to Kiosk 1 # 30. where they attempted to process the jackpot. The Kiosk produced a payout slip for $2,000.00, but dispensed no cash. The plaintiff noted this on a transaction slip and proceeded to a cashier window where he obtained the $2,000.00 jackpot which was then paid to the patron.

Thereafter, the plaintiff returned to Kiosk # 30, where he noticed that an icon which controls the dispensing of money was missing from the computer screen. [607]*607At that point, the Kiosk dispensed $2,000.00. According to the plaintiff, he followed protocol and returned the $2,000.00 to the Kiosk via a drop slot. The $2,000.00 was not recovered from the Kiosk, according to the defendant, who contends that plaintiff took the money for his own use. After Kiosk # 30 dispensed the cash, the plaintiff took advantage of the “early out” program, which allowed him to leave before the end of his shift and which, according to a witness for the defendant, the plaintiff had taken before. Administrative Transcript, p. 27.

Following an evidentiary hearing, at which the plaintiff represented himself pro se, the Hearing Officer made the following Findings of Fact:

“1. Mr. Culley received the May 11, 2005 letter notifying him of the Show Cause Hearing (Exhibit # 1).
2. Testimony by Nancy Ducheneau, Variance Specialist for Mohegan Sun indicated that the casino initially believed there wras a missing document to cover the $2,000 jackpot from Kiosk # 30.
3. When questioned about Exhibit # 2, Ms. Ducheneau stated the third entry with a dispense total of $2,000, indicates that the jackpot was paid from Kiosk # 30. Had it not been paid, this document, according to her testimony, would have a “void” entered along with an error code.
4. She also stated mechanics went to the machine and checked for the missing money twice without success.
5. Lorraine Nevins, Director of Slot Operations testified about the process used to pay a jackpot from any Kiosk. In her testimony, she noted Exhibit # 4 is the ticket generated by Kiosk # 30. It, produced a W2G (for winnings above $1,200) and a jackpot slip. But because the Kiosk # 30 did not dispense the 82,000, employees annotated it and took it to a coin redemption window'. Exhibit # 7 is generated from the coin window and gives the employee the money to pay the jackpot. The payment is made by two employees to the patron.
6. At this point, per Exhibit # 9, Ryan Culley returned to the Kiosk to close out the jackpot entry. lie noticed an icon was missing from the computer screen. This icon, referred to as a “TDN” icon, controls the dispensing of the money for jackpots from the Kiosks. He put the icon back on the screen without re-booting the Kiosk computer. When this wras done, $2,000 was paid out by the Kiosk for the jackpot earlier paid by going to the window.
7. Mr. Gulley’s statement claims he counted out the money and used a drop bag (Exhibit # 8) to put the cash in and then deposit it into the Kiosk.
8. An earlier statement by Nancy Du-cheneau stated the mechanics checked the Kiosk twice for any money and found none.
9. Mr. Culley testified that he did take the $2,000 from the Kiosk,
10. In addition to the activity described by Mr. Culley, it was noted that the jackpot VOID (Exhibit #4) occurred at 0132 hours on the date in question. The jackpot "OVERRIDE” occurred at 0138 hours followed by the Kiosk payment (Exhibit # 2) at 0156 hours. Mr. Culley departed for his break at approximately 0200 hours (Exhibit # 9). At 0240 hours, Mr. Culley annotated the Kiosk Entry Authorization Log (Exhibit # 10) with “OK TDN DISPLAYED ON SCREEN.” At approximately 0300 hours, Mr. Culley took an early out, which allows an employee to go home prior to shift completion (Exhibit # 9).
11. From Ms. Nevins’ testimony, she stated it is usual for a Floor Manager to begin the shift by checking the opera[608]*608tional status of Kiosks. The operational status is entered in the Kiosk Entry Authorization Log (Exhibit # 10).
12. Mr. Gulley stated that he placed the $2,000 in the Kiosk deposit slot. Exhibit # 6 indicates that when Kiosk # 30 was inventoried, it was found to have two jackpot payout slips and one VOID slip. There was no deposit of $2,000 as Mr. Gulley indicated.
13. Based on testimony, I find that it is more probable than not that Mr. Culley took the $2,000 jackpot for his own use. I give weight to the fact that he took an early out during this shift as it further leads to the belief that he wanted to leave the casino so that the jackpot could not be found on him. I also give weight to the fact that Mr. Culley’s inspection of the Kiosk prior to leaving raises suspicion as to his intent on performing the inspection. This is unusual to cheek a machine upon conclusion of a shift. Perhaps he wanted to verify that nothing in the Kiosk would lead back to him.
14. I am revoking Mr. Culley’s gaming license for his theft of the $2,000 jackpot.”

B. Plaintiffs Request to Provide Additional Evidence on Appeal

Following the administrative decision revoking his gaming license, the plaintiff retained counsel who, as a part of the appellate process, asked this Court to hear additional testimony with regard to the existence of surveillance coverage at the time Kiosk #30 dispensed the $2,000.00 cash. The plaintiffs proffer was that the Casino had video camera surveillance of all the Kiosks, including Kiosk # 30, at the time of the alleged theft, which surveillance tape was not made available to the plaintiff and could have exonerated him.

During the course of the administrative hearing, the only testimony regarding surveillance coverage of Kiosk # 30 was by Lorainne Nevins, Director of Slot Operations for the Casino, who had investigated the incident. She testified that “Now, as soon as we, as soon as I heard that it was currency that we were looking for we immediately called Surveillance, they were not able to help us.” Administrative Record, p. When asked whether her investigation concluded that plaintiff had stolen th<-$2,000.00 dispensed from Kiosk #30, Ms. Nevins responded:

“Well, I did not have the advantage of Surveillance coverage on this. II' 1 would have had the advantage of Sur veillance coverage, there would have been no question as to what happened. I don’t know what happened.” [Emphasis supplied]. Administrative Record, p. 32.

Consequently, on March 23, 2006, pursuant, to MTO 2002-13, Section 3(1)2

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Related

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10 Am. Tribal Law 115 (Mohegan Gaming Disputes Trial Court, 2009)
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7 Am. Tribal Law 387 (Mohegan Gaming Disputes Trial Court, 2007)

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Bluebook (online)
6 Am. Tribal Law 605, 3 G.D.R. 28, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/culley-v-office-of-the-director-of-regulation-mohegangct-2006.