Suspect accused of running fake raffle
Recent Cases
A call to police from a Troy sports bar led to the arrest of a Royal Oak man believed to be involved in an area-wide fraudulent sports raffle sales scheme.
A bar patron apparently realized the man selling raffle tickets purportedly for his 8-year-old son's hockey team might be the same person the Michigan Amateur Hockey Association (MAHA) issued a warning about on its Web site earlier this month.
Officers took Robert Eugene Yontz, 34, into custody shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday at Field of Dreams sports bar, 1090 Rochester Road, Troy.
Yontz was arraigned Monday for larceny by false pretenses second or subsequent offense, a five-year felony. Yontz is held in lieu of a $25,000 cash bond pending a pre-exam conference March 10 in Troy's 52-4 District Court.
Yontz had 60 raffle ticket stubs with the names of 32 people, including two persons who purchased the $5 tickets at Field of Dreams that night, said Troy Police Lt. Gerry Scherlinck . Yontz had $83 on him when arrested, Scherlinck said.
The alleged fraudulent raffle tickets contained a Web site for MAHA which on Feb. 4 warned about a person selling fraudulent tickets claiming they benefit MAHA.
MAHA attorney Steven Stapleton said the scam has been ongoing since December.
Related listings
-
Justin Timberlake charged with driving while intoxicated in the Hamptons
Recent Cases 06/19/2024Pop star Justin Timberlake was charged early Tuesday with drunken driving in a village in New York’s Hamptons, after police said he ran a stop sign and veered out of his lane in the posh seaside summer retreat.The boy band singer-turned-solo st...
-
Ex-Thailand PM Shinawatra indicted for defaming monarchy
Recent Cases 06/16/2024Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was indicted and arraigned Tuesday on a charge of defaming the country’s monarchy in one of several court cases that have rattled Thai politics. He was granted bail.Thaksin is the unofficial power b...
-
Tunisian trial shines light on use of military courts
Recent Cases 11/24/2021A few days after Tunisia’s president froze parliament and took on sweeping powers in July, a dozen men in unmarked vehicles and civilian clothes barged into politician Yassine Ayari’s family home overnight and took him away in his pajamas...
Texas Adopts Statewide Texting-While-Driving Ban
Effective September 1, 2017, Texas will become the 47th state to pass a statewide ban on texting while driving. Governor Abbott’s signing of House Bill 62 is an effort to unify Texas under a uniform ban and remedy the “patchwork quilt of regulations that dictate driving practices in Texas.”
The bill specifically prohibits drivers from reading, writing, or sending an electronic message on a device unless the vehicle is stopped. That includes texting and emailing. It does not, however, prohibit dialing a number to call someone, talking on the phone using a hands-free device, or using the phone’s GPS system.
Violations would be punishable by a fine ranging from $25 to $99, to be set by each municipality. Although penalties could rise to as much as $200 for repeat offenders.
Studies have found that a driver’s reaction time is half as much when a driver is distracted by sending or reading a text message. According to state officials, in 2015 more than 105,000 traffic accidents in Texas involved distracted driving, leading to at least 476 fatalities.