Ex-Mobster Weighs Odds, Pleads Guilty Operated Largest Bookmaking Ring Ever Busted In Spokane

Nicholas “Mike” Mitola - a confessed killer, drug trafficker and Mafia informant - pleaded guilty Thursday to operating the largest bookmaking ring ever broken in Spokane.

The computerized bookmaking was set up behind the locked doors of a faux espresso business that Mitola opened on busy East Third in 1999.

His Cascade Espresso operation processed at least $100,000 a week in bets from 360 “active bettors” who were given secret code names to call in bets.

Their voices and bets were recorded on audiotapes seized by FBI agents and state gambling investigators.

Mitola collected a 10 percent commission on each bet but now claims he’s broke.

He employed as many as 15 clerks or “bookies,” who recorded the bets and entered them on computerized spreadsheets offering odds on future sporting events.

Seven of the alleged bookies who worked for Mitola also face federal charges and a joint trial in July.

They are Frank E. Ward, 51; David L. Clark, 45; Gordon J. Graves, 46; Lanae F. Grindstaff, 44; Steven E. Socha, 48; Gene T. Taylor, 51; and Steven L. Theodorson, 47, all of Spokane.

Now that their former boss could be called as a witness against them, some of those defendants are expected to plead guilty.

Those who placed bets could be charged with violating state laws. Those cases will be referred to Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Tucker.

Mitola pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to a charge of operating an illegal gambling business, the same count he was indicted on in April.

His only incentive for pleading guilty is that he will be credited for “acceptance of responsibility” when a complex sentencing guidelines formula is calculated.

He probably faces 18 to 24 months in prison when he’s sentenced Sept. 7.

His attorney, public defender Nancy Tenney, asked Judge Frem Nielson to release Mitola before sentencing so he can work to support his wife and two teenage children.

“He would like to have a legitimate job,” Tenney told the judge. “His family is suffering from his actions.”

Tenney said Mitola is being offered a job as a kitchen supervisor at Finnerty’s Red Lion BBQ & Sports Bar.

In a letter to the court, bar owner Thomas Finnerty said he was offering Mitola a job working 50 to 60 hours a week.

But the judge said that raised questions.

“Is that a good environment, from what I read in the papers?” the judge asked Mitola’s attorney.

“It think it would be,” Tenney responded.

Investigators claim in court records that Finnerty’s was the site “for exchanging winnings and collecting losses” in Mitola’s bookmaking operation.

Court documents also allege the bar’s owner, Thomas Finnerty, was involved in the illegal betting. He has not been charged in the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice objected to Mitola’s release before sentencing so he could work at Finnerty’s.

“They are still under investigation by the Washington State Gambling Commission,” Rice told the judge.

“Finnerty’s has, appears to be culpable in some manner under state gambling laws,” Rice told the court.

The prosecutor said Mitola poses a flight risk and danger to the community.

Rice said the investigation revealed that Mitola was involved in distributing cocaine and marijuana. One shipment sent to the East Coast was hidden inside a large fish, apparently to fool drug-sniffing dogs, court documents say.

Shortly before his arrest on March 7, Mitola told associates that he was planning to move his computerized betting operation to the island of Aruba, off the north coast of Venezuela.

Tenney said Mitola and his family were evicted from their rented South Hill home and don’t have the money to leave town.

The judge denied the release request, saying Mitola will be credited for the jail time he serves now, before sentencing.

Mitola didn’t look at his wife or children as he was led from the courtroom by deputy U.S. marshals.

Rice said the bookmaking investigation was begun in February 1999 by the Washington State Gambling Commission. The FBI joined the probe in July after it was learned that Mitola was involved.

The active investigation “prematurely ended” March 7 when Mitola was arrested by police for domestic violence involving his girlfriend, who was one of his bookies.

Angry at Mitola, she handed FBI agents computer disks, audiotapes of the bet-making, computer spreadsheets and betting slips.

Mitola was the FBI’s star witness in a 1989 federal prosecution of the Lucchese organized crime family in New Jersey.

He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking but avoided prison by testifying against his former mob buddies. He was given a new identity, “Mike Milano,” and was moved to Spokane under the federal Witness Protection Program.

In 1991, Mitola pleaded guilty in Spokane County Superior Court to involuntary manslaughter in a plea bargain to avoid a murder charge. He said he killed a drug-dealing cohort in self-defense after a cocaine deal went sour.