Lake Casino: More traffic and more deputies lead to expected increase in police calls

Lake Casino: More traffic and more deputies lead to expected increase in police calls
By Daniel Pepper
Staff Writer

In the year since the Gun Lake Casino opened, incidents handled by the Allegan County Sheriff Department in Wayland Township have almost doubled.

In 2009, the number of incidents was 545; there were 527 in 2010. The number leaps to 999 in 2011.

Sheriff’s officials say that while the casino has been the cause of more incidents, the phenomenon is more complex.

Lt. Frank Baker explained that any sort of large facility that got a lot of traffic would mean more numbers recorded, especially as the visitors almost exclusively come in cars.

“We anticipated we’d see a greater traffic volume in that area,” Baker said. “Knowing that, much of it is attributed to the greater traffic volume in the area.

“That’s like if a big box store had opened. There’d be a propensity to having more traffic and more traffic offenses.”


Alcohol offenses are also a part of the story.

“With an establishment of that size and they serve alcohol, there are always going to be alcohol-related incidents,” Baker said.

However, another half of the story is the fact that more police officers in Wayland Township will lead to more incident reports.

“There’s going to be a lot of different factors,” Baker said. “There’s the fact that we have more deputies in that area. That’s going to increase the number of traffic stops, for instance.”

Two contract deputies were added by Wayland Township, and they patrol the area when they are on shift.

The other factor is how the statistic of “incidents” is generated.

“If you take a look at motorist assist, for instance, if there’s an officer there, they’ll generate those calls and they’ll be there to take those calls,” Baker said.

An officer who sees someone on the side of the road will often stop and see if they need help. That gets marked as a motorist assist.

“Or if an officer sees a tire in the road and stops and moves it, that gets recorded as a ‘road hazard,’” Baker said.

He said that he knew the sheriff department had responded to some incidents at the casino, including attempts to cheat and steal from the premises. [Where are the statistics? Ever notice how proponents are vague with statistics?]

Despite the obvious high-profile example of the Watson Township treasurer’s arrest, Baker said he wasn’t aware of any evidence that crimes such as embezzlement committed by problem gamblers had increased. [Article below.]



Township treasurer charged with embezzlement had racked up $49,000 in debt at Gun Lake Casino
By Rex Hall Jr. Kalamazoo Gazette

WATSON TOWNSHIP — A Watson Township treasurer charged with felony embezzlement had racked up thousands of dollars in gambling debts at the Gun Lake Casino and is suspected of stealing more than $51,000 from township coffers since February, according to court testimony earlier this month.

While swearing to an arrest warrant for Stephanie Bogdan, 43, last week in front of an Allegan County judge, sheriff's detective Len Mathis said his investigation showed Bogdan had been to the casino more than 162 times since its opening in February and is currently in the hole by almost $50,000.

“I began an investigation, your honor, and found that the embezzlement began in February of (2011) and continued through Nov. of '11 and I have found that Ms. Bogdan was in possession of a player's card at the the Gun Lake Casino,” Mathis testified at the Nov. 21 hearing. “In the some 250 days the casino has been open, Ms. Bogdan has been at the casino 162 days … she has gone through $620,000 of play and her net loss is some $49,000 at the present time.”

Bogdan, of Martin, was arrested last week by sheriff's deputies and arraigned Thursday morning in Allegan County District Court on one count of felony embezzlement by a public official of more than $50.

The felony is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, investigators said.

Bogdan is free on a $1,500 bond she posted Monday.

While swearing to the arrest warrant for Bogdan, Mathis testified that police began investigating Bogdan Nov. 4 after township clerk Kelli Morris reported the theft of township funds.

Mathis said he met with Morris and township Supervisor Candy Adrianson who had received a periodic financial report from Bogdan that showed Bogdan had been paid $900 more during that time than Adrianson and Morris.

Mathis said during the hearing that the three women are all paid the same salary for their duties.

“They found that there had been duplicate paychecks for the months of June, July and August and cashed,” Mathis said.

The financial irregularities prompted Adrianson and Morris to check township accounts at two banks and they found that “several thousands of dollars of checks were drawn on a tax account,” the detective said.

“All these checks made personally payable to Stephanie Bogdan, signed by Stephanie Bogdan and one of the notations was some $1,600 for a computer that does not exist,” Mathis testified. “Based on the amounts of money and verifying line items in this tax checking account … over $51,000 of loss, including the payrolls, was found.”

The investigation of Bogdan is continuing, Sheriff's Lt. Frank Baker said Thursday.

Bogdan is scheduled to be back in court Dec. 21 for a hearing on evidence against her in the case.