The boss of a local gambling house has been sentenced to six months in jail following the raid of his illegal operation on Academy Lane which also landed charges against a county commissioner.
The man, Margle Otis Ward, entered a guilty plea to the charge of violation of probation and was ordered to serve six months behind bars. He also had his probation lengthened by one year.
His violation comes after he admitted to being in violation of his probation agreement when lawmen raided his gambling hall in August. There were 21 citations issued for gambling, including one against County Commissioner Wayne Copeland, who has been bound to the grand jury. There were also arrests made for drugs during the raid, including that of Ward who is charged with possession of marijuana.
Investigators say Ward had been operating the illegal gambling operation out of the building located at the north end of the McMinnville city limits for some time. They decided to raid it after word came out about drug dealing there. An undercover agent was sent to “buy-in” to the weekly poker game. The agent testified against Copeland during his preliminary hearing, saying he saw the commissioner, who had just left a Warren County Commission meeting minutes earlier, throw his money on the table and have his name written on the player list for the poker game.
His testimony was supported by a house video which was part of Ward’s surveillance system. Along with Copeland throwing his money on the table, Ward can be seen walking back and forth on the video moments before officers charged into the establishment and took everyone into custody.
Along with drugs and gambling, Ward still faces promotion of gambling charges for holding the games and also faces possession of gambling devices for poker machines found inside the building. Those charges were not part of his six-month sentence for violation of probation.
Given his status as a convicted felon, Ward’s punishment could be severe as he was found in possession of ammunition for a gun.
At present, Ward has been sentenced only on the violation of probation charge which grew from his conviction on a habitual traffic offender violation for which he was given four years in June 2014.