1 DENNIS
J
HERRERA,
State Bar 139669
City
Attorney
. 2 YVONNE MERE,
State Bar 173594
Chief
Attorney 3 Neighborhood and Resident Safety Division JENNIFER E. CHOI,
State Bar 184058
4 JERRY THREET,
State Bar 205983
Deputy City Attorneys 5 1390 Market Street, Sixth Floor San Francisco, California 94102-5408 6 Telephone: (415) 554-3887 Facsimile: (415) 437-4644 7 E-Mail: jennifer.choi@sfgov.org 8 Attorneys for Plaintiffs CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO 9 and PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
3
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10
11
12
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SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO UNLIMITED JURISDICTION CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN 14 FRANCISCO, a Municipal Corporation, and the PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF
15
CALIFORNIA,
by
and through Dennis J. Herrera, City Attorney for the City and County 16
of
San Francisco, 17 Plaintiffs,
18
vs. 19 THOMAS LACEY, an individual and DBA
NET
STOP BUSINESS CENTER, EMILY T. 20 FARRAH, as Trustee
of
the FARRAH FAMILY TRUST, JOSEPH A. FARRAH, as
21
Trustee
of
the FARRAH FAMILY TRUST and as Trustee
of
the JOSEPH FARRAH 22 FAMILY TRUST, NICHOLAS
J
FARRAH, as Trustee
of
the JOSEPH FARRAH FAMILY
23
TRUST, MICHAEL
R
FARRAH, SR., an individual, STANLEY
G
BEAINY, as Trustee 24
of
the EDWARD
G
FARRAH TRUST
FI IO
DEAN FARRAH, DATED JUNE
15 1989
25 GIBRAN FARRAH, as Trustee
of
the GIBRAN FARRAH REVOCABLE TRUST 26
UADATEDAUGUST26
1997 DOE
1 through DOE 50, 27 Defendants.
28 ~
____________________________
Case No. COMPLAINT
FOR
INJUNCTIVE AND DECLARATORY RELIEF AND PENALTIES Type
of
Complaint [42]
1
COMPLAINT, CCSF
v
THOMAS LACEY DBA
NET
STOP
n:lcode enforcelsharedlnet stoplcomplaint -
finall10613.doc
1 The CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, a municipal corporation, and the PEOPLE 2 OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, by and through San Francisco City Attorney DENNIS
J
3 HERRERA (collectively Plaintiffs ), file their Complaint against Defendants THOMAS LACEY, an 4 individual and d/b/a
NET
STOP BUSINESS CENTER; EMILY T. FARRAH, as Trustee
of
the 5 FARRAH FAMILY TRUST; JOSEPH A. FARRAH, as Trustee
of
the FARRAH FAMILY TRUST 6 and as Trustee
of
the JOSEPH FARRAH FAMILY TRUST; NICHOLAS
J
FARRAH, as Trustee
of
7 the JOSEPH F ARRAH FAMILY TRUST; MICHAEL R. FARRAH, SR., an individual; STANLEY 8
G
BEAINY, as Trustee
of
the EDWARD
G
FARRAH TRUST
FIB O
DEAN FARRAH, DATED 9 JUNE 15, 1989; GIDRAN FARRAH, as Trustee
of
the GIBRAN FARRAH REVOCABLE TRUST 10
UA
DATED AUGUST
26,1997;
and DOE ONE through DOE FIFTY (collectively Defendants ). 12
13
Plaintiffs hereby allege as set forth below:
INTRODU TION
1
This action arises out
of
the illegal gambling occurring at
Net
Stop Business Center, a 14 commercial business located at 4458 Mission Street, San Francisco, California ( NET STOP ).
15
Although
NET
STOP promotes itself public ally as a legal internet cafe, providing onsite office 16 services and computer rental,
NET
STOP and its owner and manager THOMAS LACEY also operate 17 an illegal gambling business at the same location. The other Defendants collectively own the real
18
property at that location and lease it to
NET
STOP. Despite requests, those Defendants have failed to 19 take any steps to prevent
NET
STOP and THOMAS LACEY from operating an illegal gambling 20 business
on
their property.
21
2
Since
NET STOP S
opening and start up
of
its illegal gambling business in or around 22 the Fall
of2012,
criminal and nuisance activity has dramatically increased
in
the surrounding area,
23
necessitating constant police intervention and adversely affecting the neighborhood so as to interfere 24 with the comfortable enjoyment
of
life and property
in
an entire community.
25 3
By
allowing illegal gambling to occur at
NET
STOP, Defendants have maintained
NET
26 STOP as a public nuisance,
in
violation
of
the Penal Code sections 11225-11235 ( Red Light 27 Abatement Law ) and Civil Code sections 3479-3480. 28 2
COMPLAINT, CCSF
v
THOMAS LACEY
DBA NET
STOP
n:lcode enforcelsharedlnet stoplcomplaint -
finall10613.doc
4. By operating, and/or allowing the operation of,
NET
STOP in repeated violation
of
2 applicable state and local laws and as a public nuisance, and by misleading the public that NET STOP 3 is solely a legal business center when, in fact, it is also an illegal gambling establishment, Defendants 4 have also demonstrated a pattern and practice of, engaging in unfair and unlawful business practices in 5 violation
of
he Unfair Competition Law ( UCL ), Business and Professions Code sections 17200-6 17210. 7
5
California's Gambling Control Act ( GCA ), Business and Professions Code sections 8 19800
et seq
was passed in 1997. Although gambling establishments have existed in California for 9 over 100 years, prior to 1984 the legal gambling industry was almost entirely unregulated; California
10
law outlawed certain forms
of
gambling and left other forms free
of
government oversight or
11
regulation.
12 6
With the passage
of
the GCA, the California Legislature recognized that [u]nregulated
13
gambling enterprises are inimical to the public health, safety, welfare, and good order. Accordingly, 14 no person in this state has a right to operate a gambling enterprise except as may be expressly
15
permitted by the laws
of
this state and by the ordinances
of
local governmental bodies. Business and
16
Professions Code section 19801(d). 17
7
The GCA created a comprehensive scheme for statewide regulation
of
legal gambling.
18
State law prohibits commercially operated lotteries, banked or percentage games, and gambling
19
machines, and strictly regulates parimutuel wagering on horse racing. To the extent that state law 20 categorically prohibits certain forms
of
gambling and prohibits gambling devices, nothing herein shall
21
be construed, in any manner, to reflect a legislative intent to relax those prohibitions. Business and 22 Professions Code section 19801(a).
23
8
The GCA created a Bureau
of
Gambling Control ( Bureau ) and a Gambling Control 24 Commission ( Commission. ) The Bureau's mission is to make sure that gambling is conducted 25 honestly, competitively and free from criminal and corruptive elements, monitoring and inspecting 26 gaming operations and performing background checks on employees; State
of
California Department 27
of
Justice, Office
of
the Attorney General, Bureau
of
Gambling Control, http://oag.ca.gov/gambling. 28 The Commission is responsible for establishing minimum regulatory standards for the legal gambling 3
COMPLAINT, CCSF
v
THOMAS LACEY DBA
NET
STOP
n:lcode enforcelsharedlnet stoplcomplaint -
finall10613 doc