Ex-boxer’s suit goes to trial

PORTLAND – A lawsuit by retired boxer Joey Gamache against the bank that he claims withdrew a commitment to lend him $285,000 to open a restaurant went to trial Monday in Superior Court.

Gamache, a former two-time world champion, has maintained that Kingfield Savings Bank, now called United Kingfield Bank, repeatedly and falsely assured him he would get the money and then pulled the rug out from under him.

The bank said it has done nothing wrong and it expects to be vindicated.

Gamache sought the loan as part of a plan to transform the Lewiston Elks Lodge on Ash Street into a restaurant, to be called The Final Round.

His lawyer, Daniel Lilley, said the project had the backing of the city, the Small Business Administration and “[Gamache] thought, the bank. Essentially, the bank double-crossed him.”

The lawsuit is seeking millions of dollars in damages.

“The bank led me to believe that this was all going to happen,” Gamache said outside the courthouse. “I made all the plans, I did everything I could possibly do to make this work. I invested every cent that I had, laid everything on the line, for just a chance. And of course I didn’t get that chance.”

Gamache ended his career after suffering a concussion when he was knocked out by Arturo Gatti in the second round of a February 2000 bout in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Gamache had a career record of 55 wins and four losses.

Gamache said the ill-fated restaurant venture cost him his life savings.

The bank’s lawyer, Lee Bals, told jurors that Gamache failed to live up to the terms of the deal by securing funding from other sources.