Son of Seattle’s Mayor Pleads Not Guilty

On June 14th Jacob Nickels, the son of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, appeared in front of a U.S. District Court Judge in Seattle and pleaded not guilty to charges that he played a role in a multi-state gambling scheme.

Jacob Nickels was arrested by federal investigators on May 24th during the round up of 24 suspects in a multi-state casino cheating scheme that allegedly stole millions of dollars from several casinos.

Nickels was charged with a five-count indictment that included one count of conspiracy and four counts of theft of funds from a gaming establishment on Indian lands. According to the indictment Nickels was a pit boss at the Nooksack Indian Tribe's, Nooksack River Casino in Whatcom County when allegedly accepted a $5,000 bribe in 2005 to introduce one of the crime ring’s members to a crooked dealer. Later in October of 2005, Nickels aided two ring members and two dealers in a “false shuffling” scheme that netted $90,000.

In all, the crime ring targeted 18 casinos in the states of Washington, California, and Indiana, 10 of which were owned by tribes.

Magistrate Judge James Donohue of the U.S. District Court released Nickels after the arraignment and ordered Nickels to surrender his passport and to abstain from drinking alcohol.

Jacob Nickels’ trial has been set for August 13th 2007.