MONROE - A longtime Monroe bar owner received the same sentence Wednesday as his partner in a gambling ring, despite being convicted on fewer felony gambling charges.
Jeffrey "Twitty" Conway, 53, pleaded no contest to two of the eight counts against him, and Judge James Beer sentenced him to 18 months of probation and fined him $10,000.
Conway's partner in the gambling operation, fellow Monroe native Werner Rast, 51, received the same sentence from Beer last October after pleading no contest to ten similar charges. Rast has since apparently violated his probation by absconding to Costa Rica and is considered a fugitive by Monroe police.
Conway, in contrast, is not likely to leave, according to his attorney Stephen Hurley.
"Mr. Conway is wed to this community," Hurley said. Unlike Rast, Conway has no criminal record. "The contrast is indeed profound and important," Hurley added.
Hurley argued his client has been punished enough by paying $171,000 in back taxes and fines on his gambling earnings and having to give up his liquor license and his bar, Old Smokey's, 1301 17th St. The bar was sold Tuesday to Larry Gordon, who previously owned Cash's Bar and Grill in Argyle. Conway started Old Smokey's almost 30 years ago, in 1983.
According to an investigation started in 2007, Conway and Rast ran a sports betting operation for years out of Rast's home in Monroe and used Old Smokey's as the pickup and dropoff location for money won or owed.
Hurley suggested Conway be fined $100 per count. Probation, he argued, would be a "wasteful" use of state resources.
"He has, day to day, from the time he was a teenager, proven his commitment to this community," Hurley said of Conway.
The $10,000 fine Conway and Rast must pay is the maximum allowed by law for one of the Class I felony counts against them.
Prosecutor Richard Dufour said Conway's good qualities and cooperation with authorities do not negate the seriousness of his offenses. "He chose to cooperate once he was caught ... He chose to gamble with his business. He knew he was committing felonies. He knew if he got caught he'd lose his business. It's a choice he made," Dufour said.
The gambling ring took in almost $1 million in bets annually, he added: "It wasn't a small-time little thing going on."
Greg Knoke, a local attorney who spoke in support of the defendant as a friend, said Conway "has done nothing but be a goodwill ambassador for Monroe" yet doesn't make a big show of it.
"You never saw him standing there with a 5-foot-long check," Knoke said.
Knoke also pointed to what he feels are inconsistencies in Wisconsin's gambling laws. While Conway made sure people didn't allow their gambling to get out of control, casinos continue to take advantage of gamblers.
"Go to casinos and see who's gambling there," he said. It'll be someone on an oxygen machine who's smoking and "plugging away at the one-armed bandit."
Dufour responded later that ethical arguments for or against laws need to go to the legislature, not before judges.
Knoke was the only member of the public who spoke to the court Wednesday. Many submitted letters supporting Conway, however, including Skip Brennan of Brennan's Market and Colony Brands CEO John Baumann.
Conway choked up when given a chance to speak to the court.
Turning around to acknowledge the 60-plus people in the courtroom, he apologized to his wife, family, friends, the entire Monroe community, Chief of Police Fred Kelley, the Monroe Police Department and Judge Beer.
"I'm totally ashamed," he said. "Hopefully the next time you hear about Jeff Conway, it'll be about something good I did for your community."
He ended by quoting a line from "It's a Wonderful Life."
"Remember, no man is a failure who has friends."
Jeffrey "Twitty" Conway, 53, pleaded no contest to two of the eight counts against him, and Judge James Beer sentenced him to 18 months of probation and fined him $10,000.
Conway's partner in the gambling operation, fellow Monroe native Werner Rast, 51, received the same sentence from Beer last October after pleading no contest to ten similar charges. Rast has since apparently violated his probation by absconding to Costa Rica and is considered a fugitive by Monroe police.
Conway, in contrast, is not likely to leave, according to his attorney Stephen Hurley.
"Mr. Conway is wed to this community," Hurley said. Unlike Rast, Conway has no criminal record. "The contrast is indeed profound and important," Hurley added.
Hurley argued his client has been punished enough by paying $171,000 in back taxes and fines on his gambling earnings and having to give up his liquor license and his bar, Old Smokey's, 1301 17th St. The bar was sold Tuesday to Larry Gordon, who previously owned Cash's Bar and Grill in Argyle. Conway started Old Smokey's almost 30 years ago, in 1983.
According to an investigation started in 2007, Conway and Rast ran a sports betting operation for years out of Rast's home in Monroe and used Old Smokey's as the pickup and dropoff location for money won or owed.
Hurley suggested Conway be fined $100 per count. Probation, he argued, would be a "wasteful" use of state resources.
"He has, day to day, from the time he was a teenager, proven his commitment to this community," Hurley said of Conway.
The $10,000 fine Conway and Rast must pay is the maximum allowed by law for one of the Class I felony counts against them.
Prosecutor Richard Dufour said Conway's good qualities and cooperation with authorities do not negate the seriousness of his offenses. "He chose to cooperate once he was caught ... He chose to gamble with his business. He knew he was committing felonies. He knew if he got caught he'd lose his business. It's a choice he made," Dufour said.
The gambling ring took in almost $1 million in bets annually, he added: "It wasn't a small-time little thing going on."
Greg Knoke, a local attorney who spoke in support of the defendant as a friend, said Conway "has done nothing but be a goodwill ambassador for Monroe" yet doesn't make a big show of it.
"You never saw him standing there with a 5-foot-long check," Knoke said.
Knoke also pointed to what he feels are inconsistencies in Wisconsin's gambling laws. While Conway made sure people didn't allow their gambling to get out of control, casinos continue to take advantage of gamblers.
"Go to casinos and see who's gambling there," he said. It'll be someone on an oxygen machine who's smoking and "plugging away at the one-armed bandit."
Dufour responded later that ethical arguments for or against laws need to go to the legislature, not before judges.
Knoke was the only member of the public who spoke to the court Wednesday. Many submitted letters supporting Conway, however, including Skip Brennan of Brennan's Market and Colony Brands CEO John Baumann.
Conway choked up when given a chance to speak to the court.
Turning around to acknowledge the 60-plus people in the courtroom, he apologized to his wife, family, friends, the entire Monroe community, Chief of Police Fred Kelley, the Monroe Police Department and Judge Beer.
"I'm totally ashamed," he said. "Hopefully the next time you hear about Jeff Conway, it'll be about something good I did for your community."
He ended by quoting a line from "It's a Wonderful Life."
"Remember, no man is a failure who has friends."