Poker players must practice patience in most every aspect of the game. The patience required to see a civil lawsuit make its way through the United States court system requires an entirely new level of patience.
Veronica Brill and 24 other plaintiffs filed a civil lawsuit against Mike Postle and other defendants on October 8, 2019. It wasn’t until January 2020 that Postle was even served with his papers, though he seems to have actively avoided the process.
While that situation was resolved, there is now another delay – agreed upon by all parties – to push the deadline for required documents well into March.
Postle Response Delayed to March 24
Two documents were filed with the US District Court of the Eastern District of California on February 26. Mac VerStandig of the VerStandig Law Firm filed both documents on behalf of the plaintiffs.
One is the second stipulation to extend the time allowed for Mike Postle to respond to the original complaint. The original date was set for February 26, as Postle didn’t even acknowledge receiving the court documents until January 8. Weeks later, it became clear that Postle still had no representation for his case, so VerStandig agreed to extend his response date to the end of February.
This second stipulation now requests that the court agree to another extension so that Postle may respond to the original complaint by March 24, 2020.
The document also stipulates that Postle cannot file a response before March 4.
Postle signed VerStandig’s document.
Kuraitis and King’s Responses Delayed to March 13
The original delay afforded to Postle was also applied to Justin Kuraitis and King’s Casino, both also defendants in the case. When Postle’s response was moved to February 26, so were the responses due from Kuraitis and King’s Casino.
Now that Postle’s response is delayed again, VerStandig requested delays for the others, too.
The document to this effect requested that the due date for responses from Kuraitis (former tournament director at Stones) and King’s Casino (owner of Stones Gambling Hall) be set at March 13, 2020.
It seems this is the third extension for Kuraitis and fourth for King’s Casino.
Delays Almost Over
Within the next, court documents filed by Postle, Kuraitis, and King’s will finally give the poker public some idea of the defendants’ defense in this case.
Since the original cheating allegations came to light and court case filed, many interested parties have wanted to know what the defendants had to say for themselves.
--Will Kuraitis turn on Postle to save himself? --Will Postle admit to any wrongdoing?--Will Stones throw Postle and/or Kuraitis under the bus?
The charges against them are varied but serious. All face charges of negligent misrepresentation, but Postle and Kuraitis (and anyone else found to be involved) face violations of the US Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act, fraud, and negligence. Postle also faces charges of unjust enrichment, while Stones and Kuraitis face negligence and fraud charges. In addition, Stones is looking at allegations of constructive fraud and libel.
https://twitter.com/depaulo_ryan/status/1188292580737503232?s=20
The only case updates before the above-listed deadlines are likely to be related to these deadlines, as the judge must still officially approve the extensions.
Past that point, the words of the defendants will dictate the direction of the case and further filing dates. Poker players will need to find some patience in order to wait it out until the end of March for more information.
