Judge tosses evidence in Las Vegas gaming case

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorneys for Paul Phua and his son Darren today applauded a federal judge's decision to recommend suppressing evidence gathered in a raid on their hotel villa.

"We have deep appreciation in this country for a constitutional system that protects people against government overreaching," said David Chesnoff, who represented Paul Phua. 

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen concluded that agents violated the Constitution in two separate ways. They filed a search warrant application that was "fatally flawed'' by seriously misleading a judge about suspicions that Phua was involved in illegal sports bookmaking.

"The affidavit was written in a way to suggest investigators had much more information linking Phua to an illegal sports betting operation" than was true, Judge Leen wrote.

Judge Leen ruled that errors and misleading statements in the search warrant application were at least "reckless.''  

The Judge also found that agents separately violated the Constitution by defying instructions to stay outside the interior of the villa occupied by Phua. Evidence obtained during that visit must be suppressed, Leen concluded.

Judge Leen concluded that the agents did not violate the Constitution in a third way: by cutting off the villa's internet access and posing as repair technicians. But very little of the evidence that supposedly supports the government's case was gathered through that ruse.

Phua, a Malaysian businessman and professional poker player, and his son were among eight people charged in July 2014 with operating an illegal gaming operation at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The others pleaded guilty or were dismissed from the case. Chesnoff and Goldstein have insisted that Paul and Darren Phua are innocent of the charges.

Judge Leen has directed the Phuas' attorneys and the government to consult on whether and how the case should proceed.

SOURCE Chesnoff and Schonfeld