Police raid Yadkin Road poker house

North Carolina - Police seized $12,000, drugs and weapons after raiding a poker game off Yadkin Road on Friday night and searching the home of the man accused of operating it.

Misdemeanor citations were issued to 39 people, many of them identified as Fort Bragg soldiers, said Lt. Chris Davis of the Fayetteville Police Department.

Fort Bragg’s Criminal Investigative Division was notified, Davis said, but they declined to come to the scene. City police were assisted by state Alcohol Law Enforcement agents, he said.

The game operator was Christian Patrick Lusardi, 36, of the 2500 block of Lullwater Drive, Davis said.

Police received a complaint in March about a gambling house that was operating out of a building at 407-A Festus Ave., Davis said.

Officers served a search warrant at the business, known as the Yadkin Road Poker House, about 9:45 p.m. Friday, Davis said.

The cinder-block building had a bay door on the front, Davis said. Inside, officers seized three gambling tables, two pool tables, four large-screen televisions, gambling paranelphia and video surveillance cameras, he said.

Officers seized between $6,000 and $7,000 from Lusardi at the business and about $1,000 more from the patrons, Davis said.

Searches of the vehicles that were parked at the gaming house turned up 57 Oxycodone pills, small amounts of crack cocaine and marijuana and three guns, Davis said.

John Preston Melvin, 27, of the 900 block Axis Circle was charged with trafficking in opium/heroin, possession of cocaine and possession of marijuana.

A search of Lusardi’s home in the Birch Creek subdivision turned up between $3,000 and $4,000, Davis said.

Lusardi was charged with illegal gambling and violating state alcohol laws, Davis said. Both are misdemeanors.

Jonah Blankenship, 43, lives in Hope Mills and has played poker for more than 30 years, eight of them seriously, he said.

Blankenship and the other players were cited for illegal gambling.

The players were taking part in a “free roll tournament,” he said. There is no initial fee to take part, and players receive free poker chips, Blankenship said.

Players must pay for additional chips once their free ones are gone, Blankenship said.

“Not everybody there had run out of (free) chips,” he said. “I didn’t.”

Blankenship said he attended games there several times and pointed out that there is contact information on the Internet for games across the state.

A game of chance
State law says poker is illegal because it is a game of chance rather than skill.

Why lawmakers have labeled the card game as one of chance is something Blankenship doesn’t understand.

He’s hoping the game bust will draw attention to the state’s vaguely written gambling laws.

These arrests are part of a police crackdown on illegal gambling, Davis said.

Other charged were Lusardi’s mother, Doris Lusardi, 63; Michael Adams, 36; Joshua Anderson, 24; Aaron Best, 26; Rufus Bunce, 46; Justin Bungo, 22; Jonathan Carter, 46; Larry Cashwell, 35; Vincent Cole, 24; Joshua Davis, 21; Titus Davis, 33; Joshua Ferguson, 24; Michael Fields, 24; Kenneth Green, 32; Denise Green, 38; Deshaune Griffin, 21; Lori Hall, 42; Villanueva Jesus, 22; Gabriel Jimenez, 41; Jeremie Johnson, 24; Kyle Krick, 23; Robert Lee, 23; Gary Lowther, 19; John Melvin, 27; Brendan O’Conner, 24; Terrance Pope, 39; Parrish Powers, 36; James Quick, 41; Julius Richburg, 25; Robert Ross, 33; Walter Scott, 26; David Shadmoni, 20; Shaheim Sheridan, 22; Charles Taylor, 23; Myuna Toogood, 69; Cory Whetton, 27; Roderick Williams, 25; Kevin Williams, 37; and Anthony Williams, 44.

FayObserver

News Added: 07 October, 2008

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