Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : Bookmaking Charges Filed Against Pair

Criminal complaints were filed Thursday charging a bartender and a customer with six counts each of felony bookmaking, police said.

The suspects were arrested Nov. 20 but have been released pending Dec. 22 arraignments in Municipal Court in Santa Ana, officers said.

Charged in the complaints were William Michael Tighe, 34, a bartender at the Quill tavern on 17th Street, and Donald Martin Briggs, 51, who works at a glass company, a police investigator said.

He said both men are Santa Ana residents, and search warrants were served on the bar and Briggs’ home the day of the arrest that allegedly netted gambling paraphernalia in the form of markers and pool sheets filled with names.

The detective spoke on condition his name not be used in this story--but with the knowledge of his superiors--because he said revealing his identity would jeopardize other investigations.

He said his three-month surveillance on the bar showed that every night Tighe--a part-time employee--worked, he ran the betting pools. The detective said 10% was usually taken out by the bookmakers as their payment.

“The bet-taking included using football cards to place wagers of $1 and more, and there were pools involved with 100 people in them--possibly at $20 a square, $10 a square,” the detective said. “There was a wide variety of pools that you could enter.”

If convicted on a first offense, the maximum penalty for felony bookmaking is one year in jail, the detective said.