Dog track officials say Coe received no special treatment

By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD and JEFF TESTERMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 29, 2000

TAMPA -- In the final year of his life, Harry Lee Coe visited the dog track nearly every day, sometimes wagering as much as $7,500 a visit.

Like most gamblers, he lost more than he won.

Derby Lane in St. Petersburg, where he bounced $28,000 worth of checks, had him on a repayment plan of $500 a week and had terminated his check-writing privileges not long before his death in July, state law enforcement agents said Tuesday.

At the Tampa Greyhound Track, he bounced $19,000 in checks.

"Harry obviously had a sickness, and that's what a gambling addiction is, just like alcoholism," said Tampa Mayor Dick Greco. "I probably go to the dog track once a year to present a trophy. As little as I'd go, I'd see Harry there."

How was Coe allowed to float so many bad checks for so long?

Derby Lane general manager Richard Winning insisted Tuesday that Coe's status as Hillsborough County's top law enforcement official won him no special favors. "We don't have any particular privileges here," Winning said. "Nobody gets any special treatment."

In order to cash a check at the track, Winning said, a patron must first undergo a credit screening.

But Winning declined to discuss the specifics of Coe's case, as well as the track's policy for collecting on bad checks.

"It's the same as writing a check at the grocery store," Winning said.

Hillary Fellenz, a spokeswoman for the Tampa Greyhound Track, said the track's policy is to send bounced checks to the bank a second time before considering collections procedures. While the Florida Department of Law Enforcement says Coe bounced $19,000 in checks there, Fellenz says the bank had not yet returned any checks a second time when Coe died.

"For his prestige, and out of respect, you're going to put it back through a couple of times," she said. "We do it anyway, for anyone." Of the checks Coe cashed at the track, she added, "They weren't very large sums." The largest, she said, was for $1,500.

At the Tampa track, FDLE agents said, Coe was considered "a loyal friend of the family" of track operator Mike Hater.

The six-page report of the FDLE's investigation confirming Coe's "gambling addiction" characterized his habit as "extensive." Coe acknowledged as much when he solicited loans from three of his employees, saying he was in a terrible financial condition because of his gambling addiction, the report says.

The investigation revealed that Coe's office laptop computer had been used "primarily" to access Web sites related to greyhound racing. For 16 months beginning in December 1999, Coe accessed such sites on at least 200 different days. Agents say he created 800 computer files on greyhound racing, everything from handicapping data to greyhound photo finishes.

Coe's bank accounts showed heavy infusions of cash, apparently from Coe "churning" money needed for gambling into winnings and then back into wagers, according to FDLE Special Agent Charles E. Guthrie.

Of $584,000 Coe deposited into his accounts during the last 15 months of his life, 72 percent, or $422,000, was cash. Only $106,000 deposited came from his salary, pension and Social Security checks.

At the Tampa track Tuesday night, even regulars were astonished at the amount Coe owed in bounced checks.

Jerome Anderson said he worked at the track for 30 years before quitting more than five years ago. He remembers Coe and his outrageous bets.

"Well, he did bet heavy," Anderson said, shaking his head. "It wasn't nothing for him to bet $1,500 to $2,000 a (race). You win big, you lose big, you know. But the 30 years I worked here, I saw people lose more than they won."

Anderson said that the track places a limit on the amount checks may be written for based on the money in a person's bank account, which the track checks.

For Coe to have bounced that many checks, at that amount, Anderson thinks he had to have been getting special treatment from the tracks.

"It had to," he said. "At the kind of money he was gambling and losing, it had to."

- Times researcher John Martin and staff writers David Karp, Graham Brink and Angela Moore contributed to this report.

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