As reported by: CBS 42
Attorney Jock Smith says some of his clients were terrified when the Governor's Task Force on Illegal Gambling raided the White Hall Resort and Entertainment Center last month.
"What they thought was that a robbery was taking place, that they were being held up," said Jock Smith. "A couple of our clients lost control of their bladder."
The President and Senior Partner of The Cochran Firm USA says the task force seized enough machines to cost the business half a million dollars. He says armed agents detained both patrons and employees, confiscated firearms from hired security, and even took one patron's medicine away, but ultimately made no arrests.
"Why wasn't anybody arrested? They said well you know this is a test case, and the question is, when does a test case have a right to violate the rights of patrons who are in the facility who have nothing to do with the case?" said Smith.
Smith says the Governor's task force selectively prosecuted the Lowndes County facility while ignoring similar facilities operating in other counties. He also says the way they went about it violated the executive order that created the task force in the first place.
"They should have identified themselves as police officers, they should have shown some id,but really they should have given the District Attorney of Lowndes County, as Executive order 44 suggests, a heads up," said Smith.
The Cochran Firm says the situation could have been handled with a court order instead of a raid, especially since the bingo hall had already been declared legal by Attorney General Troy King.
"Thankfully we're not dealing with an issue where someone was actually physically injured by a bullet wound that night or possibly killed," said Ben Irwin.
David Barber, the former Jefferson County district attorney who is chairman of the Governor's Task Force on Illegal Gambling, released the following statement in response.

Article By: CBS 42