{"id":22678,"date":"2015-11-09T23:04:12","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T23:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cardschat.com\/news\/nypd-cop-sentenced-after-illegal-poker-game-bust-16509\/"},"modified":"2023-09-28T21:00:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T21:00:53","slug":"nypd-cop-sentenced-after-illegal-poker-game-bust-16509","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/nypd-cop-sentenced-after-illegal-poker-game-bust-16509\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD Cop Sentenced After Illegal Poker Game Bust"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Richard
Former NYPD detective Richard Palase was sentenced to probation after running an illegal poker game in New York. (Image: Jesse Ward\/New York Daily News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former New York Police Department (NYPD) detective Richard Palase has been sentenced for running an illegal poker game in his home state.<\/p>\n

The 19-year law enforcement veteran was part of a 13-strong gang busted by his former NYPD colleagues following a tipoff about a longstanding underground poker game in Staten Island.<\/p>\n

Big Money Operation<\/b><\/h2>\n

Known to local players as 5th Street, the unlicensed poker game reportedly served alcohol and food alongside its poker games and took thousands of dollars in rake every night.<\/p>\n

According to state laws, home games in New York<\/a> are legal if no rake is taken by the house; however, the moment money is taken from the pot or tournament buy-in, the game is deemed illegal.<\/p>\n

This was the case at 5th Street and the reason NYPD officers began an internal investigation into the game in 2011.<\/p>\n

Following years of investigations and suspicion that the game was being operated by a member of the force, the NYPD eventually swooped in on the game and arrested 13 players, including Palase, retired NYPD sergeant Ralph Mastrantonio and fireman, Michael Bergen.<\/p>\n

A series of trials ensued at the start of 2015 and both Palase and Mastrantonio were convicted in February and April, respectively.<\/p>\n

More Troubles for Palase<\/b><\/h2>\n

As well as having to fight charges that he was running an illegal poker game<\/a>, Palase was also accused of threatening to kill Bergen (who had his charges dropped).<\/p>\n

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“Palase shouted ‘you’re dead,’ and made obscene hand gestures toward Bergen, including making a hand gesture of cutting his head off,” read the police report.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This accusation resulted in Palase having his bail revoked; however, this was later reinstated after Palase’s defense team suggested that he was simply rubbing his neck and not making an obscene gesture towards Bergen.<\/p>\n

After fending off these allegations, Palase faced charges of operating an illegal poker game which prosecutors believed should carry a prison sentence of between 15 and 21 months.<\/p>\n

According to reports, Palase’s strategy was to admit he made a “grave mistake” during a teary-eyed testimonial and cut a plea bargain with the judge.<\/p>\n

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“He has already lost more than I believe any other defendant. He lost his job that he had for 19 years that he cherished and he excelled at,” stated Palase’s lawyer, Joyce C. London.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Admitting his crime and essentially sacrificing his career with the NYPD, Palase was eventually spared a prison sentence but was slapped with three years of probation and home confinement for eight months.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the disgraced former detective was ordered to complete 200 hours of community service and he lost all rights to the pension he’d paid into for 19 years.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former New York Police Department (NYPD) detective Richard Palase has been sentenced for running an illegal poker game in his home state. The 19-year law enforcement veteran was part of a 13-strong gang busted by his former NYPD colleagues following a tipoff about a longstanding underground poker game in Staten Island. Big Money Operation Known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":12861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[499,507,497,509],"tags":[],"vertical":[],"class_list":["post-22678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poker","category-legal","category-news","category-poker-scandals"],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":22678},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.casino.us\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/gamble7n-1-web-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.casino.us\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/gamble7n-1-web-600x423.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Daniel Smyth","author_link":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/author\/daniel-smyth\/"},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22678"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.casino.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=22678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}