Cruel Punishment
Sunday October 28, 2007
A businessman in Lafayette, Indiana was forced to watch as 38 gambling machines seized from his all-ages night clubs were destroyed last week.
Watching the destruction of the machines was part of his unusual sentence handed down by Superior Judge Don Johnson.
Rodger L. Heer plead guilty to promoting professional gambling, a Class D felony. He was arrested in a raid in May of 2004 the case has taken this long to make its way to the courts. Heer also was sentenced to unsupervised probation and ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution.
The machines cost him about $2,200 a piece but he was a little perplexed as to why the judge made him watch their destruction. "This was four years ago," Heer said, gesturing to the machines being smashed by a bulldozer in the parking lot at the city of Lafayette's fleet maintenance facility. "I don't even know why I'm here."
Maybe the judge thought it was a smashing blow for justice.