VictoryLand Trial Gets Underway

by WAKA Action 8 News

A Montgomery judge could decide the fate of victory land casino in a trial that started this morning. 

Over 1,000 machines and over $200,000 in cash were seized in a raid from the casino early last year.

Victoryland owner Milton McGregor wants his machines and money back, and his attorney Joe Espy wants to show that there’s no reason for that not to happen. 

Both sides presented opening arguments this morning.

“All we’re asking for for Macon County is fairness, the same things the native americans have 15 minutes from here, the same thing played all over the state. We will show that Macon County’s law allows for these type of machines,” said Espy. 

The citizens of Macon County voted to allow electronic bingo after a 2003 constitutional amendment passed the state house. 

Lawyers for the attorney general’s office would not speak about the case, but in their opening statements they said they have a simple job. All they have to do is prove the machines are illegal.

But Espy says he expects that will be hard for them to do. 

“They will not be offering expert testimony. It’s a shocker. I don’t know how they’re gong to rebut our position. We’re going to bring in two or three of the top experts in the country,” said Espy. 

The state called to the stand one of the attorney general’s special agents who investigated the casino undercover. 

“People just don’t realize it until you see it. When you look up there and see for four years the native americans have been running the very machines we’re talking about here. Greene county, houston county, for what I think the judge said three years they’ve been running it. They’ve allowed us 63 days. That’s simply unfair. the attorney general is simply not following the rules,” said Espy. 

He says he hopes to wrap up the case by Friday, but it could very well go into next week. 

While Attorney General Luther Strange has been at the front of this case, he was not in court today.