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It seems these days, whenever professional poker player Amarillo Slim is in the news, it's usually not for something good. About 6 weeks ago, Slim was beaten and robbed as he tried to collect on a gambling debt in his hometown of Amarillo, Texas. While that incident left Slim with a few broken bones and some level of embarrassment, it was nothing compared to the humiliation and damage he incurred when he was accused by his daughter of sexually assaulting a granddaughter in 2003. Since that time,
Slim, whose real name is Thomas Preston, has been reluctant to talk about those events. But this week, he decided to give an online interview in the hopes of perhaps somewhat cleaning up his soiled name which is no longer as synonymous with poker legend as it once was.
After the maelstrom of allegations of him were levied, he eventually pleaded down to a no contest charge of assault in the hopes of protecting his family's privacy. As a result of his plea, Slim underwent counseling, paid a fine and was given probation as a sentence. However, the damage of the charges were already done as he lost countless friends as a result of all the question marks swirling around his character.
In a late attempt to recover what is left of his reputation, Slim candidly answered questions about what really happened on the day in question.
When asked why he decided to finally speak out, Slim was relatively vague, basically answering that he felt it was time to do so. However, he was more than willing to discuss his version of the events that led to the heinous charges. He stated that on a rainy day on his ranch, it began to rain and he and four of his grandchildren sought to keep dry in his truck, among them, the 12-year old named Hannah. While reaching for the gear shift, his hand touched her leg and from there, the allegations were born. He vividly says that he never, ever touched her inappropriately in any way, the only contact was this seemingly incident act. He did however concede that he uttered the seemingly creepy statement "I'll bet that feels good." That particular statement would not have likely played very well for him in a court of law.
In fact, he says the first time he was ever even approached about the allegations was when Child Protective Services came to question him about it. He goes on to state that in connection with the investigation, which he notes were dropped by the Child Protective agency, he passed a lie detector test. He does proudly state that since the events that temporarily destroyed his family, both his daughter in law who made the accusations, and his wife, who initially believed them, have each signed affidavits saying they no longer believe he did anything wrong.
Slim is hopeful that all of this evidence will somehow clear his name, though the 80-year old does seem somewhat resigned to the fact that not everyone will believe his version of the facts of the case. In the weeks and months to come, it will be interesting to see if the poker world is a forgiving one, since at present time, posters to web forums still believe that he is guilty in some way.
Source: www.aintluck.com
