Raymond Davis Poker Jail
Asia
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A high profile poker player has pleaded guilty after he was accused of sex crimes, and this is a case with many twists and turns. Raymond Davis spoke with the I-Team from a Las Vegas jail last November. Vanessa Murphy: “Have you paid underage girls for sexual acts? At the start of 2011,Raymond Davis was the most well known name in Pakistan. No one in Pakistan,who was alive at the time of the infamous Raymond Davis affair,is ever likely to forget his name,thanks to the media frenzy,the likes of which have seldom been seen in this country.
CIA contractor Raymond Davis has been released after families of the two Pakistanis he killed pardoned him in exchange for compensation. Davis' case has placed a serious strain on US-Pakistan ties.
Raymond Allen Davis, a CIA contractor, indicted for two counts of murder is released
A CIA contractor Raymond Davis, indicted earlier in the day on two murder charges in Pakistan, has been acquitted and released after a deal to pay blood money to families of the two Pakistani men he killed.
The deal ends a long-simmering diplomatic standoff between Washington and Islamabad.
Pakistani police escort arrested US citizen Raymond Davis, who claims he acted in self-defence
Following a lengthy court hearing on Wednesday at the Lahore jail where Davis had been detained under tight security, and where a media blackout had been imposed, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has confirmed to Reuters that “the court acquitted him in the murder case.'
Earlier on Wednesday the court had charged Davis on two counts of murder. 'The court first indicted him but the families later told the court that they have accepted the blood money and they have pardoned him,' said Sanaullah.
Deal to pay blood money
Blood money, or 'diyat' is a provision commonly used under Pakistani and Islamic sharia law in which compensation can be paid to the relatives of those killed to secure a pardon.
Supporters of Pakistani religious party Jamat-e-Islami rally against Raymond Davis
Such payments are sanctioned by Islamic law and are common in some parts of rural Pakistan as a way to settle disputes. 'He has been released from jail. Now it is up to him. He can go wherever he wants,' Sanaullah told private Geo television.
Lawyers for the families of the two men who were shot dead said they were present for four hours at the jail court where Davis was being tried on Wednesday, but had not been allowed to witness proceedings.
'We were not allowed to leave the prison,' one of the lawyers, Asad Manzoor Butt, told AFP. Butt claimed that the families of the men had agreed with authorities to accept blood money over the deaths the previous night.
Another laywer for the families, Nauman Atiq, confirmed that the lawyers were held at the court and ordered not to speak to media.
US-Pakistan stand-off ends
Raymond Davis, 36, a former special forces soldier, had been in jail since he shot dead two Pakistani men in the eastern city of Lahore on January 27. Davis has always claimed he acted in self-defence and has been backed by US authorities who say he was an embassy employee with full diplomatic immunity.
Banner in native language read 'Raymond Davis should be hanged publicly'
The Davis case until now has created tension in relations between the United States and Pakistan, a vital ally in the US-led campaign against Taliban militants in Afghanistan.
It also strained ties between the CIA and Pakistan's main Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency which said it was unaware Davis was working in Pakistan.
Raymond Davis Poker Jail Inmates
Author: Sherpem Sherpa (Reuters/AFP/dpa)
Editor: Grahame Lucas
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08:4529 Oct
Prominent Las Vegas poker pro Raymond Davis has reached a plea deal with Nevada authorities to resolve sex-related charges that could have resulted in a lengthy prison stint. Instead, after already spending more than a year behind bars, he has been released with a time-served sentence, though he could still face a one-to-six-year term should he fail to adhere to the conditions of his release.
Davis’s saga dates back several years. The founder of the RealGrinders poker players group was arrested in April 2019 on an open warrant issued in 2016 that went unfilled despite Davis’s relatively high profile in the Las Vegas gambling community. The criminal complaint against Davis involved multiple activities of sexual activity with three minors, the primary accuser being under age 14, with the activity having occurred in 2014 and 2015.
Davis was alleged by the primary victim, then 13, to have paid cash and offered other financial aid in exchange for oral sex and other lewd activities. Investigators ultimately filed nine felony charges against Davis, though none of the agencies involved have ever made a statement as to why Davis remained free -- and highly visible on the Vegas scene -- for nearly three years.
Raymond Davis Poker Jail List
Once in custody, Davis’s own behavior made a bad situation worse. Originally freed on $25,000 bond, Davis was remanded on a much higher $500,000 bond after repeated courtroom outbursts and violations. Davis also fired multiple attorneys and unsuccessfully sought to represent himself, as a court-ordered public defender eventually provided formal representation.
Meanwhile, according to multiple reports, Davis turned down a plea deal on multiple occasions, though when his trial began earlier this month and the evidence began to be presented, he changed his mind and accepted the offer. Rather than battle the nine charges, which included included three counts of sexual assault of a minor under the age of 14, two counts of lewdness with a child under the age of 14, and other chargeable acts, Davis instead pled guilty to a felony coercion charge (with no sexual behavior element) and a misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Raymond Davis Poker Jail Roster
Within days of being freed, Davis posted a statement via the 17,000-member RealGrinders Facebook group, where he has resumed admin duties. In the statement, Davis continued to profess his innocence while claiming the jury was stacked against him -- it reportedly contained only one black juror -- and that he had no choice to take the deal.
Davis’s statement and return to the RealGrinders scene led to a strange sidebar in the saga involving another poker-world veteran, Terry King. King had been a longtime friend of Davis’s and had held an admin role in the RealGrinders group. King recounted how she had helped Davis with thousands of dollars in legal fees and cared for his pets while Davis was jailed, though she claimed Davis ultimately accused her of theft, and the friendship ended bitterly. King wrote, “He swore he was innocent, he said he vaguely remembered an extortion plot years ago,” in reference to the underaged girl at the heart of the criminal complaint against Davis.
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