Deputy arrested in connection with gambling operation

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Marc Giauque and Amanda ButterfieldSalt Lake County sheriff's deputies have shut down what they call a "high-stakes" poker operation.

Investigators say the gambling operation was being run in an office space located at 1063 East 3300 South. They say sometimes three poker games would be going at once, with as much as $100,000 in the house at a time.

The arrest followed a two-month investigation into organized poker games. "This was not a group of friends getting together to play cards," said Salt Lake County Sheriff Lt. Paul Jaroscak.

Deputy arrested in connection with gambling operation

Jaroscak added, "Sometime during the middle of this investigation, we heard that one of our deputies may be involved. As disappointing as that is and heartbreaking as that is, we just continued the investigation."

Fourteen-year-veteran Deputy Lee Morris was arrested in the case, as were four others accused of gambling. Jaroscak says Morris was involved in the operation itself and, at times, it involved tens of thousands of dollars and even a mechanism for collection of debts.

Investigators say they seized poker tables, chip counters, chips and even a surveillance system during Wednesday night's raid.

The suspects face class B misdemeanor charges. Several suspects accused of running the operation are charged with felonies.

Some people who work in neighboring office complexes say they suspected something was going on. Russ Fuller said, "We'd come out late and see the whole parking lot full of $100,000 cars. And we're working at 33rd South. Something's got to be going on."

Fuller says he'd heard rumors that there was officer-involved gaming going on, but he didn't know the extent of it. "We just figured that there really wasn't much money going on, and it was kind of an open secret. We had no idea that there was this level of illegal activity going on back there," he said.

In fact, Fuller says many of the players came by his office suite wondering where the poker was being played.

E-mail: mgiauque@ksl.com

E-mail: abutterfield@ksl.com