Cases of Disgraced Priest, Ex-lawyer Highlight Problem Gambling Issue

By Richard N. Velotta
Las Vegas Sun
April 14, 2012

http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2012/apr/13/problem-gambling-cases-disgraced-priest-ex-lawyer-/

On the day that Monsignor Kevin McAuliffe reported to the La Tuna Prison in Anthony, Texas, his embezzlement of $650,000 from the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Las Vegas — and his compulsive gambling problem — was the subject a keynote address and a panel at the close of the sixth-annual Nevada State Conference on Problem Gambling on Friday.

An expert witness in McAuliffe’s court case, UCLA Gambling Studies Program co-director Timothy Fong, and three other panelists discussed some of the Nevada court cases that have brought compulsive gambling behavior to the public eye in recent months.

Another of the panelists was Douglas Crawford, a disgraced former attorney who was the first problem gambling defendant in Clark County to receive diversion to a three-year program of treatment under a new statute approved last year by the Nevada Legislature. Crawford is eligible to reapply for his license to practice law in the state in May.

Carol O’Hare, director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, told about 75 clinicians and health experts attending the event’s lunch keynote address that the public need only look at headlines screaming from local newspapers for awareness of the damage that compulsive gambling takes on a community.

The local council is one of the advocates for National Problem Gambling Awareness Week, which this year was March 4-10. O’Hare and her staff were about ready to adopt a national theme to bring awareness of problem — the annual increase in gambling associated with the NCAA basketball tournament — when a newspaper headline caught her eye on her way to speak to students at UNLV’s Boyd Law School.

The Oct. 11 headline on the front page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal said, “Pastor was gambling addict.”

“I was viscerally affected by seeing the words in print,” O’Hare said. “This headline was not something I thought I would ever see in my lifetime.”

On her way back to her car, she paused to buy the newspaper from the rack, but decided against it when she discovered it was the last newspaper in the machine. She decided it would be better to let at least one other person see that message.

While O’Hare said she heard from several people who were in denial about the theft — McAuliffe pleaded guilty in the case — she discovered that others were angered by the incident, referencing a column by R-J columnist Jane Ann Morrison.

“The parishioners’ responses are a research project in itself,” she said. “A lot of people thought he took the money for a greater purpose, like feeding starving children.”

O’Hare’s observations led to her “Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime” theme conveying that problem gambling can affect people you’d least expect to be compulsive gamblers. It also launched the council into the social media universe. The council now has a Facebook site and a Twitter feed, @problemgamble.

While the clinicians are convinced that treatment is the best way to address gambling addicts who have stolen money, Nevada’s judicial system isn’t on the same page.

Fong, who has been an expert witness in about 25 problem gambling trials including the McAuliffe case, said therapists should document their diagnoses, the treatment plan, the prognosis and seek second opinions and, possibly, neuropsych testing.

“You’re not there to cheerlead for the client or put words into the lawyers’ mouths,” Fong said. “You need to use science to answer questions of interest to the legal teams or the court.”

But the McAuliffe case threw Fong for “a major loop,” he said.

U.S. District Judge James Mahan was unconvinced that McAuliffe’s apparent gambling addiction should lead to a lighter sentence.

“Everyone wants some objectivity or proof, like a brain scan, a blood test or a tissue sample,” Fong said. “Judges vary in knowledge, acceptance and beliefs, and a bias toward problem gambling remains. Also, does having a disease excuse or mitigate criminal behavior?”

Judges in Crawford’s case clearly saw things differently.

Crawford, who described himself as a “binge drug user, binge drinker and binge gambler” before entering treatment, apologized for the pain he inflicted on clients, friends and family and said part of his conditional guilty plea requires him to speak to public gatherings and pay restitution to those from whom he stole.

Crawford said he was seconds away from pulling the trigger on a shotgun that would have ended his life. In court, he said, he was saddened and humbled by standing at the same counsel table that he had once stood with clients.

“It was a feeling of powerlessness. Today, I’m full of hope and I’ve applied to get my license so I can pay people back,” he said. “I used to look at some clients with arrogance and I would say, ‘I don’t care if you have to crawl over glass to get to the bus to take you to work to make restitution.’ Now, that’s me.”

While clinicians are working to convince the public and the legal system that problem gambling treatment is the best course in addressing the issue, one presenter in a panel on links between domestic violence and compulsive gambling warned that trouble could be ahead if Internet gambling is approved.

“I’m terrified,” said Colin Hodgen, CEO and clinical director of Renegade Counseling in Reno. “This is the next tidal wave that’s going to hit problem gambling.”