Lakeside

The former bingo manager at the Barona Indian Reservation near Lakeside was sentenced Monday to one year in County Jail for rigging the games and stealing about $97,000.

A state prison term was rejected for Stewart Siegel, 49, of Las Vegas by San Diego Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman after Siegel said he has colon cancer that has spread into his lymph nodes and is undergoing chemotherapy.

Huffman placed Siegel on five years’ probation, fined him $500, and ordered that he not to work at any gambling establish in California.

Siegel pleaded guilty April 2 to four counts of grand theft and could have received five years imprisonment.

“I think the court would have sent him to prison had it not been for his health,” Deputy Atty. Gen. Gary Schons said afterward.

FBI agents and other law enforcement officials testified to Siegel’s cooperation in five murder cases in which his information led to the arrest and indictment of six people.

Siegel testified that he had received death threats since his cooperation with officials.

Because of ongoing chemotherapy and a review by his surgeon of some recent surgery, Siegel will not have to go to jail until Jan. 7. Huffman said that would give him time to arrange to have chemotherapy performed while incarcerated.

Siegel testified May 15 in the Los Angeles preliminary hearing of Stephen Homick, charged with murdering his parents on Sept. 25, 1985, for their life insurance proceeds. Five other men are also charged in the capital case.

Siegel told Huffman that Homick told him he planned to kill someone, but he didn’t believe it at the time. Siegel is now a key prosecution witness against Homick.

The former bingo manager is also a key witness in a triple homicide case in Las Vegas and in a gambling investigation in New Jersey, officials said.