Judge: Alabama AG Office Can’t Keep Confiscated Gambling Machines, Cash

(Associated Press) - A judge says the Alabama attorney general's office can't keep nearly $94,000 in cash and 376 gambling machines seized in a raid of Greenetrack in 2011.

Circuit Judge Houston Brown ruled Wednesday that the state waited too long to file correct paperwork seeking forfeiture of the cash and machines seized in the raid of the Greene County gambling business on June 1, 2011.

The judge said the state's 13-week delay made the forfeiture complaint ineffective.

When the attorney general wins forfeiture proceedings, the money goes into the state treasury and the gambling machines get destroyed.

Attorney General Luther Strange spokeswoman Joy Patterson said Thursday, "We respectfully disagree with the trial court's ruling and plan to appeal the order to the Alabama Supreme Court as we have done before."

The judge had ordered the equipment returned once before, but the Supreme Court put that ruling on hold.

Greenetrack attorney Charlanna Spencer said the judge's new ruling means the $93,917 and 376 machines should be returned to Greenetrack, but that will be delayed if the attorney general appeals.

"When they do, Greenetrack will be prepared to respond because Greenetrack is entitled to the return of its property according to Alabama law," she said.

Greenetrack began as a dog racing track, but as the popularity declined, it switched from live races to races simulcast from other tracks and added gambling machines.