Legal battle over developer’s background persists

PORTLAND – The state’s highest court could rule as soon as today on whether to make public hundreds of documents detailing the background of a Las Vegas developer seeking to place what would be the state’s first legal slot machines in recent history at the Bangor Raceway.

Five members of the State Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court and headed by Chief Justice Leigh Saufley, heard arguments Monday on developer Shawn Scott’s efforts to keep secret documents submitted by his company, Capital Seven LLC, as part of its application to the Maine Harness Racing Commission. In a November referendum, Maine voters approved a law authorizing the commission to issue licenses to operate “racinos,” or race track casinos. The commission is expected to meet Dec. 15 to consider Scott’s application.

Capital Seven’s $30 million plan to place 1,500 slot machines at a refurbished harness racing track at Bass Park in Bangor hinges on the license.

Monday’s hearing, which attracted about an equal number of lawyers and reporters to the Cumberland County Superior Court complex, came amid a rash of media reports dissecting Scott’s recent legal battles and what some in the harness racing industry consider his company’s questionable political maneuvering in recent weeks.

The hearing also came amid news that Gov. John Baldacci was considering calling lawmakers into a special legislative session possibly before the racing commission’s Dec. 15 hearing to revamp the licensing requirements, presumably making them more stringent and bringing them under the purview of a newly created Maine Gambling Regulatory Commission.

During the hour-long court session Monday, the justices pointedly questioned attorneys for both Scott and the Maine Attorney General’s Office, which supports releasing the documents under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act. The act ensures public access to most documents held by government agencies.

Stephen Langsdorf, an Augusta attorney representing Scott, Capital Seven, and Bangor Historic Track, also owned in part by Scott, argued that releasing the documents – including tax returns and other financial documents – would cause an invasion of Scott’s privacy and give his competitors an unwarranted insight into his business dealings.

“There’s vast amounts of what anyone would consider private information in there,” said Langsdorf, who outside the courthouse used phrases such as “witch hunt” and “smear campaign” to characterize recent efforts to derail Scott’s efforts to open the slot parlor in Bangor.

The Portland hearing came as a result of Saufley’s ruling last week that granted Capital Seven a temporary delay in the release of the documents just minutes before the Maine Department of Agriculture, which oversees the racing commission, was set to provide them to the media.

Saufley’s Wednesday ruling essentially put a stay on Kennebec County Superior Court Justice Donald Marden’s ruling that the documents were public and set aside his subsequent refusal to delay their release.

Although Saufley agreed to grant the stay, the chief justice on Monday had many of the same questions as Marden, who in his written decision last week chastised Scott’s attorneys for not detailing exactly which documents would cause harm to Scott.

“You have to show real harm. Where is it?” Saufley interjected during Langsdorf’s arguments.

Maine’s harness racing licensing process involves a background investigation of operators by the Attorney General’s Office. State law requires applicants and their associates and creditors to be of “good moral character” and “financially responsible.”

Although there’s a wide range of speculation among interested parties as to what the documents might reveal about Scott and his company, Langsdorf tried to put talk of a “smoking gun” to rest.

“There’s nothing in there that would prevent us from getting a license,” he told reporters outside the courthouse Monday.

Scott won approval in a citywide vote in June and has struck a development deal with the city, which owns the racetrack. Maine voters on Nov. 4 authorized slots for Bangor Raceway and Scarborough Downs. It now appears that the harness racing license is the only obstacle remaining.

Scott has made headlines in recent weeks for his company’s lawsuit against Scarborough Downs and his questionable ties to a political action committee set on derailing the southern Maine track’s efforts to relocate to Saco or Westbrook and bring slot machines to one of those towns. In the lawsuit, a Capital Seven affiliate alleges that Scarborough Downs backed out of a verbal agreement with Scott’s company to develop a racino at that track.