Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 54 v. Read, 597 F. Supp. 1431 (D.N.J. 1984)

United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Civil Action No. 81-2630, Judge Brotman, November 5, 1984. Local 54 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union and its officers sued the Casino Control Commission, its members, the Division of Gaming Enforcement and the Governor, challenging sections 86(f) and 93 of the Casino Control Act.

The opinion quotes the Third Circuit’s account of the background: on September 28, 1982 the Commission found president Frank Gerace and executive board member Frank Materio “disqualified under section 86(f) because they were associated with members of organized crime in a manner inimical to the policy of the Act and to gaming operations,” and business agent Karlos LaSane disqualified under section 86(c) because of a 1973 extortion conviction. The officers argued that section 86(f) appeared to disqualify them “for contacts with Nicodemo Scarfo before he received the designation as a ‘career criminal.’”

The court applied Pullman abstention, leaving the meaning of “inimical” associations to the state courts. “The motion to intervene by the individual plaintiffs is granted as to Frank Gerace and Frank Materio,” denied as to LaSane, and the motion for a preliminary injunction was denied. The organized-crime finding is the state Commission’s, as the courts report it. The Third Circuit’s opinions in the same dispute are 709 F.2d 815 and 832 F.2d 263.