Amarillo Slim Interview Part 2
Written by Renee K | Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
In Part 1 of the interview with Nolan Dalla of PokerListings, Slim described how he was wrongly charged of molesting his granddaughter. One of the reasons that the poker fraternity held him guilty despite Slim protesting his innocence was that Slim offered a plea of no contest. In Part 2 of the interview Slim explained why he did not contest the charges even though he claimed that he was innocent.
The first thing Slim pointed out was that the felony charges against him had already been dismissed. So there was no fear of going to jail, which at his age would have been a tough call to take. The only charges against him were misdemeanor charges and these would result in a fine and probation. This was acceptable to Slim. And therefore his objective was to prevent a long drawn court affair that would cause nothing but discomfort and bitterness in his family. So when his lawyer suggested that the entire court room drama could be avoided by not contesting the charge, Slim told him to go ahead. He ended up with probation and a $4,000 fine. Slim said that he would have won the case, but he took a stain on his reputation because he did not want his family “dragged through a trial” and did not want his “12-year-old granddaughter to have to take the stand.”
And his reputation did take a beating. John L. Smith of the Las Vegas Review-Journal “wrote the most damaging article you ever saw in your life” said Slim. According to Slim the source of the contents of the article was an assistant district attorney, who gave a factually incorrect picture to Smith. And unfortunately his peers in the poker world based their reactions on that article. Slim said, “Not a one of them has showed up and stood beside me … I don’t hear from them anymore. Some of them could have said something and shown their support. But they didn’t.” And what hurt more was that in the years gone by many of these people had been helped by Slim. Slim singled out Wicked Chops Poker for calling him a pedophile. That is a word he hates and he is contemplating legal action against them.
But one man stood up for him – his oldest and perhaps only friend. Slim said, “I will say that one person did speak up and say that what I was charged with couldn’t have possibly happened. He told everybody that we had traveled together for years and slept in the same room. He said it never could have happened what was said about me.” That man was Doyle Brunson.
And the control that Doyle has over the poker fraternity is evident. The responses to the first part of the interview were 50% in favor of Slim and 50% against. But after the revelation that Doyle had stood up for Slim, all those who posted on the PokerListings forum were 100% for Slim. Johnny Hughes summed it up pretty well. “Doyle says he [Slim] is innocent and I go with that. His family is back with him. That says they believe his innocence. What Slim will not say is that his granddaughter lied. But it is there between the lines.”
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· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
