Dart Game Gambling Charges Dropped

Three men cited for gambling on dollar-a-game darts in a bar have been let off the hook because the Los Angeles city attorney’s office decided that prosecution was pointless.

The men were cited a week ago by undercover Los Angeles vice officers who noticed them betting during dart games at the Royal Oak bar in North Hollywood. The officers were in the bar as part of an investigation into another suspected crime, police said.

Ted Goldstein, spokesman for the city attorney’s office, said Thursday that the case was too insignificant to pursue. He compared it to the Los Angeles Police Department’s decision to withdraw citations issued to five housewives for betting on bowling matches at a Granada Hills alley in 1989.

“Similar to the bowling case, there was a lack of criminal intent, there was a lack of criminal conduct and there was the evaluation that it was not winnable,” Goldstein said. “We don’t like to expend public funds to try these cases unnecessarily.”

Michael Kilby and Chuck Donato, two of the cited players, said the city attorney’s office told them Thursday that the case had been dropped and that they would be excused from their scheduled court appearances. Kilby and Donato each faced maximum sentences of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, but the usual fine in such cases is $10, Goldstein said.

“It didn’t matter one way or the other,” Kilby said. “I’m glad to know the case was going to be dropped, but I was willing to pay it. I was caught. I was guilty, but did they have to be so petty about it?”

The third player, Eddie Hansen, 40, was released from Los Angeles County Central Jail early Thursday, jail officials said. He was arrested at the bar when the undercover officers discovered that he was wanted on an outstanding traffic warrant. Kilby and Donato were not arrested.

Martin Vranicar, head of the city attorney’s Van Nuys office, said the case was the first of its kind that he could remember.

“We very rarely see these types of cases,” Vranicar said. “There are usually violations of a much more serious nature that result from vice operations.”