People v. Whitamore

608 N.E.2d 1304, 241 Ill. App. 3d 519, 181 Ill. Dec. 830, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 222
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedFebruary 25, 1993
Docket4-92-0387
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 608 N.E.2d 1304 (People v. Whitamore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Whitamore, 608 N.E.2d 1304, 241 Ill. App. 3d 519, 181 Ill. Dec. 830, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 222 (Ill. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE STEIGMANN

delivered the opinion of the court:

In June 1991, the State charged defendant, James Whitamore, with one count of keeping a place of gambling and 14 counts of gambling, in violation of sections 28 — 3 and 28 — 1(a)(3) of the Criminal Code of 1961 (Criminal Code) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1991, ch. 38, pars. 28 — 3, 28 — 1(a)(3)). At defendant’s jury trial in February 1992, the trial court directed a verdict of acquittal on six of the gambling counts, and the jury found defendant guilty of all remaining counts. In April 1992, the trial court (1) sentenced defendant to pay a total fine of $900 (a $100 fine on each count), and (2) ordered certain property seized from Whitamore’s Supper Club (hereafter Whitamore’s) subject to forfeiture. Defendant appeals his convictions and the forfeiture order, arguing that (1) the charging instrument insufficiently set forth the nature or elements of the offenses charged, (2) he was denied effective assistanee of counsel, and (3) the trial court improperly ordered forfeiture of defendant’s property.

We affirm.

I. Background

On April 19, 1991, around noon, the Pike County sheriff’s department executed a search warrant on Whitamore’s, which is owned and operated by defendant. During the search, the officers seized the following:

(1) eight coin-operated, electronic video casino-type machines (blackjack, poker, and keno) located in an area of Whitamore’s accessible to the public;

(2) six similar casino machines located in a storage room not accessible to the public; a coin-counting machine located in the storage room;

(3) several boxes of unused, empty quarter (roll) wrappers located nearby the coin-counting machine;

(4) several garbage cans containing many empty, used quarter wrappers located in a public area; and

(5) over $2,500 in United States currency and quarters ($1,258 in quarters), including $306.50 in quarters found in the eight casino machines located in a public area, a bucket of quarters found near the coin-counting machine, rolls of quarters found near the coin-counting machine, rolls of quarters found by a cash register in the public area, rolls of quarters found in a filing cabinet in the office, and quarters found in two cash registers in a public area.

Thereafter, the State charged defendant with one count of keeping a place of gambling and 14 counts of gambling — one count for each casino machine seized from Whitamore’s.

At defendant’s trial in February 1992, two undercover officers testified that in April 1991, they entered Whitamore’s and obtained $60 worth of quarters from a barmaid, in addition to $20 in quarters they brought in themselves. They observed that at least 12 electronic casino machines were in the bar area of Whitamore’s. They both played the casino machines by inserting quarters. For each quarter entered into a machine, they would receive one credit. When they “won” a game on the machine, they would earn credits, with the number of credits won based upon the number of credits they entered (“bet”) before playing that game. One credit was the minimum amount that could be entered before playing a game; no maximum amount was determined. The officers played approximately five of the machines. Eventually, they each picked a particular machine to play and played their machines until each showed 80 credits. Separately, they each then went to the barmaid, told her that they had 80 credits left on their individual machines, and each received a $20 bill from her. They then left Whitamore’s.

An officer involved in the execution of the search warrant on Whitamore’s testified regarding the property seized from Whitamore’s and the location of these items, as described above. The State then called two employees of Whitamore’s, Barbara Treaster and Patricia Hamm, who were working there when the search warrant was executed. They both refused to answer questions and pleaded the protections of the fifth amendment. (U.S. Const., amend. V.) Subsequently, after the State granted them immunity, they answered questions, but they both were hostile witnesses. Treaster testified that she had emptied quarters from the machines on a daily basis. She stated that she would “refund” 80 credits when a player requested a refund so the player could move to another machine. However, she would not give a refund for less than 80 credits, and she could not remember if she ever refunded more than 80 credits. She would usually give rolls of quarters to the player asking for a refund, but sometimes refunds would be paid with currency. Hamm’s testimony essentially corroborated Treaster’s testimony.

Pike County Sheriff Michael Lord testified that he interviewed Treaster and Hamm during the execution of the search warrant at Whitamore’s. Treaster told him that during her three to four years of employment, she had made payoffs on the casino machines. She told him that defendant had set the policy of requiring at least 80 credits before making a payoff. Hamm told Lord that she had made a $200 payoff. She also said that defendant had recently directed her to remove several casino machines to the storage room because he had received a tip that the police might raid Whitamore’s.

Lord also testified that he spoke with defendant a few days after seizing the property from Whitamore’s when defendant came to Lord’s office to talk with him. Defendant admitted that he and his staff made payoffs to customers, but he explained that after a customer obtained a minimum number of credits, a customer could receive a payoff in order to play a different machine. Defendant told him that the minimum payoff levels were 40 credits on the poker machines and 80 credits on the other machines. Defendant also told Lord that he had made a payoff of $80 to $100.

Defendant’s trial counsel offered no evidence in defense, but instead presented a motion for a directed verdict in defendant’s favor on all charges. The trial court found sufficient evidence to support the count alleging that defendant kept a place of gambling and the eight gambling counts based upon the eight casino machines seized in the public area of Whitamore’s. However, the court did grant defendant’s motion regarding the six gambling counts based upon the six casino machines found in the areas of Whitamore’s not accessible to the public. As stated earlier, the jury found defendant guilty on the remaining nine counts.

At the sentencing hearing, the court sentenced defendant to pay a $100 fine for each of his nine convictions. At the forfeiture hearing that immediately followed, the court found that the 14 casino machines and all the quarters ($1,258) seized from Whitamore’s subject to forfeiture because they were all integrally related to gambling.

II. Analysis

A. Sufficiency of the Charges

On appeal, the defendant argues for the first time that counts II through IX of the information charging him with gambling were insufficient because they did not describe the nature or the elements of the offense charged.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
608 N.E.2d 1304, 241 Ill. App. 3d 519, 181 Ill. Dec. 830, 1993 Ill. App. LEXIS 222, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-whitamore-illappct-1993.