Parkman says law enforcement has seen nothing illegal at Country Crossing

An attorney for Country Crossing said Alabama State Troopers on the site are trespassing, and they have been delivered notice of such, while the commander of the anti-gaming task force said he does not need a search warrant or an arrest warrant to act.

Troopers were delivered a statement at 11:15 a.m. Friday by lawyers at the development, asking them to leave.

Attorney Jim Parkman said Friday morning that gambling is a misdemeanor and that authorities must see it being committed before they can act.

“On a misdemeanor if you do not see it committed, you have no grounds to do anything,” said Parkman from his Birmingham offices. “They see nothing going on in the building, so they can’t seize anything. That was my first concern, to preserve the property.”

Parkman said after viewing the tape of the raid at White Hall, and considering the tactics used by the task force, Country Crossing had to shut its doors Friday morning to preserve their equipment and their operations.

“Our number two concern is for the safety of all citizens. If they do like they did in White Hall, with a stampede of officers with guns raised, somebody could have severe problems, maybe even a heart attack. We didn’t want that to take place. We felt like we had to get everybody out.”

Gov. Bob Riley’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling chief John Tyson said the fact that gambling is a misdemeanor explains why he does not need a search or arrest warrant.

Those on site for the parade of trooper cars and state vehicles down U.S. 231 at 4 a.m. Friday, said they counted 135 vehicles in the caravan, including two huge public safety tactical vehicles. About 30 of those left around 8 a.m.

The Eagle has placed a call to the Alabama State Trooper’s office in Montgomery, in an attempt to get an estimated cost and accurate manpower numbers for the attempted raids on both Country Crossing and VictoryLand in Shorter. The paper has previously asked for cost figures on the first attempted raid on Country Crossing, Jan. 5 The governor’s press office never emailed a response on the cost.

Dorris Teague, spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Public Safety, said there are 754 officers statewide, but she is unaware of the number involved in the Friday morning operations or what part of the state they came from. That figure, she said, includes all those working as administrative officers, Highway Patrol, ABI, drivers license bureaus, protection services and others.

"This department wants to ensure that sufficient personnel is present to accomplish the task," she said. "This is, of course, a law enforcement operation sanctioned by the Governor's task force and it is a criminal investigation."

Teague said she has not seen any figures on the cost of previous raids attempts.

“With the economy the way it is, they are burning a minimum of $4,000 an hour. From the time they got the word to meet,” Parkman said, “and for something they could have handled differently. And they had the same number of troopers at VictoryLand. I did try to call trooper office here in Birmingham to see if anybody was working. I thought I was going to have to go to Dothan and wanted to see how fast I could drive.”

Parkman said he felt bad for the troopers, who were just doing their job. He asked that someone on the Country Crossing site get donuts and coffee for the officers.

Parkman said events unfolded Thursday night and early Friday morning, as follows:

"Beginning about 7 p.m., I got calls from lawyers and others about the possibility of a raid. With that, we felt like -- and I felt very confident -- there would have been a raid without a search or arrest warrant."

"I said, 'Let’s try to find the judge (Jeff Brock from Conecuh County).' We couldn’t find him. In talking with the VictoryLand people, we realized that a raid was going to happen to them also. They seemed to feel like they had a judge available to stop it, and they did."

"As it was getting closer to midnight, my guess was, my opinion was, if we were open, we needed to close the doors and turn off the lights. Attorney Will Matthews showed up and he was to ask (troopers) if they had a search or arrest warrant and if they didn’t, they would be asked to leave the property."

"Will told them they can’t come in. We are not going to let them in."

"We are in the process of looking at something in federal court. At this point in time, they are trespassing, which they cannot do. We have asked who is giving the orders so we could deal with it another way. The commander just said they are taking orders."

Parkman said he has spoken with Houston County District Attorney Doug Valeska this morning but he would not reveal what was discussed.

"We have discussed an amicable solution to this entire problem to cut down on costs. He had no knowledge of the raid. Nobody called him. He got a phone call at 3 o’clock this morning about it."