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Liquor store owners, worker arrested on gambling chargeJIM BROOKS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
If you played the NCAA basketball tournament pool at J.R.'s Liquor Store and were lucky enough to win, don't start planning ways to spend the windfall anytime soon.
On Friday, Little Rock police vice detectives arrested the liquor store's owners and an employee on charges of keeping a gambling house after a month-long investigation into basketball and football pools run out of the business.
The charge is a felony, punishable by up to three years in prison.
Arrested were store owners John Nash, 66, and his wife Norma Nash, 67, both of 6400 Navajo Trail in North Little Rock, and Harvey Hall, 58, of 3400 Beauchamp Road.
Beginning March 7, undercover vice detectives began making weekly visits into the store to buy a small bottle of "Hot Damn" whiskey and ask about betting pools, according to warrant affidavits released Monday.
"Upon entering the J.R.'s Liquor Store, I noted several pools posted within the business," officer Robin Terry wrote in her affidavit. "Mr. Nash presented several basketball pools and advised me that each square cost $20.
"I filled in the square of the Georgia vs. LSU basketball game, using my undercover name," Terry wrote.
Three more times in the next three weeks, Terry entered the store, bought a bottle of the cinnamon-flavored whiskey and placed her undercover name in a square on a basketball pool, according to the affidavit.
On Thursday vice detectives seized nine game pools, a "money list" and several blank pool sheets from the store. Returning with a warrant the next day, detectives arrested John Nash and Hall. That evening, Norma Nash turned herself in on a felony warrant.
The three entered innocent pleas and were released on their own recognizance to appear Friday in Little Rock Municipal Court.
This article was published on Tuesday, April 3, 2001
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
If you played the NCAA basketball tournament pool at J.R.'s Liquor Store and were lucky enough to win, don't start planning ways to spend the windfall anytime soon.
On Friday, Little Rock police vice detectives arrested the liquor store's owners and an employee on charges of keeping a gambling house after a month-long investigation into basketball and football pools run out of the business.
The charge is a felony, punishable by up to three years in prison.
Arrested were store owners John Nash, 66, and his wife Norma Nash, 67, both of 6400 Navajo Trail in North Little Rock, and Harvey Hall, 58, of 3400 Beauchamp Road.
Beginning March 7, undercover vice detectives began making weekly visits into the store to buy a small bottle of "Hot Damn" whiskey and ask about betting pools, according to warrant affidavits released Monday.
"Upon entering the J.R.'s Liquor Store, I noted several pools posted within the business," officer Robin Terry wrote in her affidavit. "Mr. Nash presented several basketball pools and advised me that each square cost $20.
"I filled in the square of the Georgia vs. LSU basketball game, using my undercover name," Terry wrote.
Three more times in the next three weeks, Terry entered the store, bought a bottle of the cinnamon-flavored whiskey and placed her undercover name in a square on a basketball pool, according to the affidavit.
On Thursday vice detectives seized nine game pools, a "money list" and several blank pool sheets from the store. Returning with a warrant the next day, detectives arrested John Nash and Hall. That evening, Norma Nash turned herself in on a felony warrant.
The three entered innocent pleas and were released on their own recognizance to appear Friday in Little Rock Municipal Court.
This article was published on Tuesday, April 3, 2001
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