Engle, three others enter innocent pleas

Police say they'll arrest individual bettors, if they don't cooperate.
ALLIANCE -- Randy Engle, former superintendent of Salem schools, and three other suspects pleaded innocent here Monday on gambling-related charges, and police said they expect from five to 200 more arrests in a far-ranging criminal probe spanning three counties.
Police arrested Engle, 57, of Ridge Road, along with Mahoning County residents Stephen Ackerman, 61, of Norman Avenue, Smith Township, Harry and Lorraine Snyder, of Courtney Road in Smith Township, and Kimberly McIlvain, of East Oregon Street in Sebring, during a day-long raid Friday.
All the suspects except Ackerman, who will be arraigned in Mahoning County, entered innocent pleas and left the courtroom without comment.
Municipal Judge Robert G. Lavery scheduled preliminary hearings for Engle and McIlvain on Thursday afternoon and for the Snyders on Monday morning.
Large-scale operations
Charges facing Engle include 19 counts of misdemeanor gambling and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. The felony carries a maximum penalty of eight years in prison and a $15,000 fine. The top jail sentence for the misdemeanors is six months for each offense.
In an interview after Monday's proceedings, Alliance police Detective Lt. James Hilles said Engle, Harry Snyder and Ackerman each ran large-scale sports gambling operations with clients at many area bars and clubs. In terms of number of bettors, he said, Engle's was probably the largest. Ackerman likely dealt with the most money because he specialized in high-stakes betting, Hilles said.
McIlvain, who was charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activities and nine counts of gambling, was taken into custody at the William Penn Club in Alliance, where she worked as a bartender. Hilles said investigators believe she served as a runner for Engle, collecting bets and paying off winners on his behalf.
Hilles said Engle, who retired as schools chief in Salem at the end of 1999, had eight other people working for him in similar capacities, though none of them has been charged. He said additional arrests could run into the hundreds and include individual bettors, depending on their level of cooperation.
Harry Snyder Jr., 50, faces four counts of gambling and one count of operating a gambling house. Lorraine Snyder, his wife, was charged with a single count of gambling after police found her with gambling materials inside the Roma Club in Alliance.
Hilles said it would take weeks to analyze the reams of financial records and other evidence seized over the weekend from the alleged bookmaking operations.
"We've just started going through that stuff today," he said.
Three-county operation
Hilles said one thing is clear, though: The suspects maintained extensive gambling networks and exchanged large amounts of cash on a weekly basis with customers throughout a three-county region.
"They were making quite a bit of money," he said.
Authorities have begun the process of taking houses, vehicles and other materials investigators believe were used to advance the gambling operations or were purchased from the profits. Hilles the value of the seized assets totals $660,000.
Hilles also said authorities have placed holds on the suspects' bank accounts, though he added he does not know how much money those accounts contain.
Hilles also addressed the attitude expressed by some that gambling is an essentially harmless vice that does not warrant such a large deployment of law enforcement resources.
"Based on past investigations we've done, it does hit homes where you have a gambler who's spending most of the family's income, and it does lead to other crimes," he said.