Judge grants Tucker probation

James Chadwick Tucker, who admitted being the ringleader of a local gambling operation, was sentenced to three and a half years of probation in federal court on Friday.

Appearing in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Chattanooga before Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr., Tucker received the sentence of 42 months probation, a fine of $3,000 and a special assessment of $100, according to courtroom deputy Pam Scott.

Tucker will be required to wear an electronic monitoring devise and must participate in a gambling addiction treatment program.

Motions filed last Tuesday by Tucker's attorney, Peter J. Strianse, requested a mitigated sentence of probation, which was below the advisory guideline range of 12 to 18 months that was calculated in Tucker's pre-sentence report.

Strianse told the court that the personal history and characteristics of Tucker, a 39-year-old former Marine with no history of prior convictions, "weigh in favor of a tailored or mitigated sentence."

Gambling addiction

The motion requesting probation also said that Tucker's three children depend on him for financial support and that incarceration would create "extreme hardship."

Also, due to Tucker's age and lack of criminal history, "he is unlikely to commit further crimes in the future such that he would need a period of incarceration to protect the public," Strianse said.

Strianse also noted that that Tucker "has always been a productive member of society and has an outstanding work history," but also pointed out that the presentence report said that Tucker "suffers from an obsessive compulsive disorder which, unfortunately, turned the hobby of poker into an addiction

with negative consequences to his marriage and his legitimate employment."

However, Strianse cited two federal court cases that stated a sentence of probation was warranted due to the pathological nature of gambling addiction.

Also, Strianse told the court that Tucker has been publicly humiliated by his arrest, pointing out front page coverage in the Times-Gazette, and that due to the attention the case received Tucker had to explain to his children that he violated the law.

"To his credit, he offered no excuses and used the circumstance as a way to teach his daughters that one must accept responsibility for his/her actions. He is embarrassed by his own conduct as he has disappointed family, friends, colleagues and himself," the motion reads.

Strianse also said that home detention and electronic monitoring "would present insurmountable problems" for Tucker's work as a computer programmer.

Received profits

According to the amended factual basis for the guilty plea, the Tuckers began operating the gambling business at 101 Tillett Court in January 2008 and it continued until Aug. 12, 2008, the day the search warrant was executed, following an investigation by the Shelbyville Police Department, the 17th Judicial Drug Task Force, the TBI and the FBI.

A total of 33 people were caught in the raid where authorities took $48,000 in cash, gambling paraphernalia, a small amount of marijuana and firearms.

Last September, 15 people who were facing misdemeanor charges pleaded guilty and paid fines and court costs totaling $327 each, as well as giving up any money that was seized during the raid of the gaming house.

Federal documents say the Tuckers financed the illegal business in part by leasing the building in which the gambling business was conducted.

At different times during the nine-month operation, the Tuckers "would and did provide payments to the security personnel and arranged for the dealer to receive direct payments from the gambling in the form of tips," the plea document stated.

The Tuckers also received the profits that were derived from the gambling operation, the factual basis for the plea states.

Two of the dealers caught in the raid, Andrew Welsh Craze and Samuel Cory Owens, were both found guilty last month of one count each of aggravated gambling promotion, a class E felony, and were sentenced last week by Circuit Court Judge Lee Russell to 18 months -- with 45 days in jail, and the rest of the sentence under probation.