Ex-state trooper seeks to delay trial in Mayfield strip club case
Sep. 24—A former state trooper facing illegal gambling and prostitution charges in connection with the operation of an Upvalley strip club wants to delay his upcoming trial in Lackawanna County Court.
An attorney for Robert E. Covington Jr. filed a motion to postpone the trial until courts resolve whether the gaming devices seized by authorities at Sinners Swing Gentlemen's Club in Mayfield are illegal under Pennsylvania law.
Covington, 49, Olyphant, who resigned from the state police earlier this year, was among four people charged in 2021 after a statewide grand jury investigation into illicit activity at the club on Business Route 6.
Investigators alleged Covington, a club co-owner, made payments to patrons who won on illegal video gambling machines and took a cut of money earned by strippers for performing sexual acts for customers.
He is scheduled to stand trial Oct. 3.
In a motion this week, Covington's attorney, Gregory Pagano, sought a continuance pending clarification of the state law regarding skill-based gaming devices.
Pagano said the owner of the machines seized at Sinners Swing, JK Group of Companies, filed civil complaints in county court earlier this month asking the court to find the machines are skill-based devices legal under state law and to order their return.
JK Group's request comes after a Luzerne County judge ruled in May that alleged gambling machines identical to those seized at the Mayfield club are not "per se" gambling devices, Pagano said.
Several of the charges against Covington are based exclusively on the alleged illegality of the devices, the attorney said.
"Given the fact the law is unsettled as it relates to the gambling charges ... a continuance of the trial is in the interest of judicial economy, the public interest and the interest of all parties in this litigation," he said.
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dsingleton@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9132.
