Federal jury awards $729,000 to victim of patron abuse by Hollywood Casino in Tunica

A federal jury returned a verdict totaling over $729,000 in a case involving the abuse of a patron by security personnel at Tunica’s Hollywood Casino and a deputy of the Tunica County Sheriff’s office.

The victim, who was suspected of counting cards, a lawful activity, but not suspected of any illegal activity, was wrongfully detained by Hollywood Casino employees, who instructed cashiers to refuse to cash the victim’s chips unless the victim provided them with his identification.

The victim refused to do so and asked to be paid so that he could leave the casino. Instead, casino employees called the Sheriff’s department. Deputy Dornae Mosby responded and demanded identification from the victim, who complied with the deputy’s request but instructed the deputy not to show the identification to casino personnel. The deputy ignored this instruction, and allowed casino personnel to take possession of the victim’s identification and photocopy it, despite there being no legal basis for so doing. The victim was arrested by Mosby for disorderly conduct. The charge was subsequently dismissed.

The victim sued Hollywood casino, Tunica County, and Deputy Mosby. The jury awarded him $25,000 from Deputy Mosby individually for the violation of his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures. The jury found the casino liable for false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, conversion, and trespass to chattels. The final two items involve the wrongful taking of plaintiff’s identification by casino personnel. The jury awarded $103,703 in damages to the victim from the casino, plus punitive damages of $600,550.

Case: US District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, Delta Division -- Civil Action No. 2:06CV204P-A Grosch v. Tunica County et al.

conversion? trespass to chattels ?
I know I could look them up, but I suspect the explanations from the esquires on our board will be more entertaining.

A trespass to chattels, IIRC, is a denial of a person to some either tangible or intangible possession which is not actual real estate. In this case, the ability to count cards is an intangible propoerty which cannot be denied, or something of the sort.

I haven't the foggiest on conversion. I don't start for another two weeks.

_________________
Fire Phil Emery

chattels sounds like a kind of mushroom...

They should've back-roomed him.

Good find, C2C.

Good for him. These idiots at casinos have never figured out how to deal with card counters, even after all these decades. Christ, they have the right to simply not deal to him. Instead they let him win a bunch of money, then get all macho and go DeNiro from Casino on the guy?

Not only is card-counting not illegal, it's not immoral and in fact, it's just plain common sense. Counting is just a more precise way of being observant. If I'm playing blackjack, and notice that all the faces and aces have been dealt, I'm supposed to just keep betting anyway?

Besides, I didn't know you could win by counting these days anyway, with the continuous shufflers and the lower odds paid on blackjacks?

Some casinos still offer single and double deck. Don't know if that was the case here. Some of the riverboat casinos aren't using continuous shufflers. You can win in a four or five deck shoe if the count gets high enough.

Thanks for the info; I haven't been to a riverboat casino since online poker got so popular a few years ago. I did find single- and double- deck BJ in Vegas a few years ago, but the payout for a BJ was less than the usual 3-to-2 (though granted, I was on the strip, so I'm sure there were better deals elsewhere).

chattels are property


trespass to chattels is the taking of his ID

conversion is the taking of his property thus converting it to the casino's use


If I take your blackberry, Im eligible for the criminal theft (I could go to jail); plus you could sue me civilly for trespass to your chattel (the blackberry)

If I use the blackberry for myself you also have an action for the conversion of the blackberry (thus I have to pay you for the cost of what you lost by not being able to use said blackberry)

sabu,

esq

p.s. good luck Irish Boy


soon you will learn of contracts and pig iron

.......nah.... it's just too easy

sabu, your definitions are exactly the same as those I got from the lawyer I sleep with. I hope you're not really my wife sabu. Nah. you pick too many winners to be her.

I am impressed with how you attorneys remember this stuff so precisely though. It's like you all read the exact same law books x years ago in law school, but then years later you can regurgitate that knowledge at any time.

Bless you.