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Gary Kaplan and what is left of his online sports gambling website, BetOnSports.com.
Soft time in jail for big-time bookie
By Robert Patrick
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/22/2008
Clayton — Most prisoners in the St. Louis County jail don't have access to a laptop computer and two printers — one for black and white and one for color.
They don't have a metal file, paper clips or other things guards consider contraband.
They don't get to see family visitors every day.
They don't still have their shoelaces.
Gary Kaplan did have all that, according to prosecutors, jail records and a former jail employee. He also has a net worth of more than $100 million.
Kaplan, 49, who looks like a skinnier version of "Sopranos" actor James Gandolfini and sounds like movie star Robert DeNiro, grew a small New York bookmaking business into a billion-dollar international online gambling powerhouse known as BetOnSports.
But federal prosecutors shut down the company, and Kaplan has been in jail since March last year, facing federal racketeering, conspiracy, mail fraud and gambling charges.
Ordinarily, a wealthy defendant in a white-collar case would be out on bail. But prosecutors have repeatedly beaten back — as recently as a hearing Thursday — defense requests for bail. Kaplan has the resources and inclination to flee the country and hide forever, they say.
Thus, jailers are left handling ostensibly their wealthiest inmate ever.
Kaplan was in the St. Louis County Justice Center under contract with U.S. marshals until one of his lawyers, Amy J. Choi, was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle sleeping pills to him July 1. Kaplan was shipped to the St. Charles County Jail, where his perks are gone.
That handling in St. Louis County has sparked questions about jail security and how Kaplan earned his privileges.
Beth Huebner, a criminologist at the University of Missouri-
St. Louis, said special treatment is unethical if not illegal, and perhaps dangerous.
"Other inmates are going to find out quickly, and that adds stress to the institution," she said. "Even a small bag of chips means so much more than to you and me. … Very small things are amplified."
Jail officials said little. "The only investigation that I'm aware of involved personnel, which we can't get into," said Herb Bernsen, assistant director of the jail.
Choi and her lawyer declined to comment. She has not been charged, but the FBI is investigating the situation.
Kaplan lawyer Chris Flood declined to comment on many of the allegations, noting they are under investigation. Lawyer Samuel Buffone complained to a federal judge Thursday that the St. Charles County Jail is too harsh — that Kaplan was housed among other prisoners and had inadequate diet and health care.
Capt. Scott Myers of the St. Charles County Jail told a reporter that Kaplan gets nothing extra.
"We just operate the way we operate," he said. "We run a very secure jail. No one is treated any differently."
Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Rickey declined to comment.
U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway, whose office is prosecuting Kaplan, said only, "Any irregularities with respect to his detention are matters of concern to this office and will be dealt with."
'EXTREME AMOUNT of property'
Some questioned Kaplan's privileges even before Choi's arrest.
When he was moved from one cell to another in Clayton in June, it took two jailers almost three hours to search his belongings, prompting an e-mail from jail Lt. Jeffrey Siler to another manager.
Kaplan had paper clips, a metal spring and hand sanitizer, Siler wrote. The inmate also had a copy of an e-mail from jail Unit Manager Cheryl Stone about a local charity for single mothers, and two drafts of a letter lauding Stone and thanking her for the opportunity to help the charity. Siler said Kaplan also has "unauthorized" pens, pencils and other office supplies with Stone's approval.
And Kaplan still had his shoelaces, Siler noted.
During visits by legal staff, Siler wrote, Kaplan had access to the computer, printers and extra toner cartridges that had been sent first to Stone. Kaplan also had a cassette player, tapes, CDs, wires and chargers, and inmate property envelopes and sealed plastic bags with other inmates' names. One contained a "metal file" and a pack of cigarettes, Siler's e-mail says.
Siler called it an "extreme amount of property," and said Kaplan had "several items that would be considered contraband to any other prisoner in our custody." The e-mail continued, "There have been numerous concessions made for this prisoner."
Bernsen said inmates in some cases are allowed to use computers to review legal documents. He said he did not know how Kaplan obtained the contraband.
Washington University law professor Peter Joy said he, too, was baffled. Even staples on legal papers are prohibited for inmates he has spoken with.
Joy and other lawyers who regularly visit the jail say inmates are always carefully searched after a full-contact visit with lawyers. "It's typically a strip-search," Joy said.
A former jail employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Kaplan was not routinely strip-searched, although Bernsen and Flood said he was.
The former employee also said that staff had been transferred over the issue, and that another employee sent a letter of complaint to County Executive Charlie Dooley.
The county refused to release the letter, citing a Sunshine Act exemption for personnel matters. Dooley could not be reached for comment.
An staff list shows that Stone's job title has changed and that her managerial position in the housing unit is vacant.
Siler and Stone referred questions to jail officials.
Flood minimized the significance of the "contraband," saying, "It's ludicrous for the jail to criticize him for having a paper clip that was left on some legal paperwork."
The lawyer said Kaplan did not have other inmates' property, but his boxes were stored in the same holding area.
"As far as getting special treatment . large room, frequent access to attorneys, laptop computers, frequent access to phone calls . all of that was necessitated by the fact that he was being held in jail in a case where the discovery is so voluminous and complex," Flood said.
RESTRICTIONS on visits waived
County jail inmates can get no more than two nonattorney visits in any seven days, not more than one any day. The hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and visitors must not bring "clothing, food, hygiene products or other property."
Kaplan's rules were different. His wife, children and other relatives visited every day during some periods, sometimes twice a day, jail logs show. Bernsen said he wasn't aware of it.
There are few restrictions on visits from legal staff. Choi was one of three dozen lawyers or related professionals who signed in on visits to Kaplan from June last year to July this year, when he was moved.
Bernsen said he was not aware of any inmate with that many attorney visitors.
Choi alone racked up 117, some with other lawyers but mostly alone. She would visit as late as midnight and as early as 2:30 a.m., occasionally twice a day, the logs show. Flood said that other lawyers visited more and that the logs must be wrong because Choi never visited that late.
Choi graduated from the Washington University Law School in 2006, according to a recent résumé touting her experience in environmental law and landlord-tenant issues. The résumé does not mention any experience in criminal law.
Recordings of Kaplan's phone calls from jail to Choi's cell phone, obtained under the Missouri Sunshine Act, show that she spent much of her time dealing with personal errands — taking his children shopping, buying summer camp supplies and gifts for relatives, and helping with the sale of his helicopter.
Former St. Louis Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr., another of Kaplan's lawyers, said staff size and visits were commensurate with the scope of "probably the largest case in the history of the state of Missouri."
He noted: "I think that the jail did what it could to accommodate the size of the case. . And really, it was to accommodate the lawyers."
SHRIMP AND RICE and bottled water
It was three visits this year that got Choi in trouble.
At about 5:15 p.m. Feb. 7, a jail employee searching her briefcase found a sandwich from the St. Louis Bread Company, five Valentine's Day cards, three paperback books, a pair of white socks, candy, gum, metal paper clips, an unopened bottle of Advil and a bottle of Ice Mountain water, jail records show.
Choi was warned that it was all contraband, and she could lose contact visits if she broke the rules again.
On June 5, Choi was caught with a bag of organic dried cherries, chocolate and candy, two bottles of Fiji water and a Ziploc bag with what looked like shrimp and rice. Choi was told to leave, and restricted to visiting through a window.
Six days later, Kaplan asked a guard to pass some paperwork to Choi. The guard refused.
On July 1, Kaplan called Choi and asked her to put $100 in the commissary account of Albert Parham, an inmate in the next cell, phone and jail records show. Parham told officials he did not know Choi and had no connection with Kaplan.
Parham could not be reached for comment for this story. His public defender, William Tucker Sr., did not recall the inmate or the incident.
Also on July 1, jail records say, Choi asked another lawyer, Terrance "T.C." Smith, to carry a computer charger, stapled papers and a large magazine to another lawyer to give to Kaplan.
Smith gave it to a clerk in the jail lobby, who discovered nine Ambien sleeping pills in an envelope in the magazine. The clerk speculated that Choi intended the other lawyer, Dan Brown, to deliver them unwittingly, according to a memo from security superintendent Ken Manier.
Brown did not respond to a call seeking comment.
Clayton police arrested Choi for an alleged "drug violation," and she was banned from the jail the next day.
In a phone call July 2, she and Kaplan discussed the incident at the end of a casual conversation.
"Um, naturally they're pretty upset in this place," Kaplan began.
"Right. I don't — I mean — I know I shouldn't have ."‰," Choi began, before Kaplan interrupted her.
"They don't understand it was a mistake. They don't understand that it was, you know, that the book was meant for Danny and that it by accident — it had some of your personal stuff there," Kaplan said. "They think everything is espionage and … you were giving it to Danny or T.C. to bring up here. So right now it's very hard for anybody to convince them otherwise. So let's just be cool for a little bit and let's just see what happens."
Flood said Choi left Kaplan's employ shortly after "the shrimp and rice episode."
Bosley said he apologized to the marshals about it, explaining, "We did not feel good about what had happened." |
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发表于 2008-9-23 07:29
