SeattleCrime: Police say Capitol Hill Sound Transit artist, others behind illegal card rooms

The house has shown its hand in the long-running case of the Capitol Hill speakeasy, The Yard, and other illegal card rooms across the city. SeatleCrime reports that seven people including artist D.K. Pan are facing charges related to operation of the illegal card rooms:

D.K. Pan (Image: CHS)

In court records, prosecutors allege William James Donnell III, Rashaad Iman Thompson, DK Pan, James P Miller, Ian Michael McNamara, Brady Donoghue McGarry, and Howard Thoren Honeycutt managed or were employed as pitbosses, security, or poker dealers at card rooms in Capitol Hill, and in Ballard and Belltown between August 2007 and June 2009.

Additionally, police also allege that Pan, a local artist, set up the well-known Free Sheep Foundation art group as a front to raise funds for the illegal gambling operation.

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In spring 2010, Pan was selected by Sound Transit to curate a 5-year program of art on the Capitol Hill light rail station construction wall. He's the guy who chose the brick red color for the wall and fostered work like the massive 135-foot mural on the wall along 10th Ave.

When a SWAT team raided East Pike's Winston Apartments building in June 2009, a three-year investigation into after-hours gambling spots and a related drug ring distributing cocaine and methamphetamine was revealed. At the center of "Operation Big Stick" were two underground card rooms including one on Capitol Hill operating out of the backside of the Winston building.

The player behind the illegal card rooms was Richard Wilson -- known to all as Rick. People who played at his room say he was a businessman not a drug dealer but he got caught up in the business of Marshall Reinsch -- and Reinsch's Honduran drug connections -- when Reinsch began gambling at Wilson's clubs.

Wilson faced a roster of federal gun and drug charges in the case. He pleaded guilty last year.

CHS reported earlier this week that the Winston is currently for sale. Price: $4.6 million.

CHS past coverage:

• Initial post reporting on the card room bust - 6/11/09
• Culmination of the investigation with meeting between undercover cop and a leader of the ring and subsequent arrests (off the Hill at Joey in South Lake Union) - 6/12/09
• CHS receives a call from the Gambler - 6/12/09
• Richard Wilson and his card room(s) inspire a rap song - 6/16/09
• "Operation Big Slick" search warrant documents - 6/18/09

• Probable Cause document in U.S. v Richard Wilson:

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