Category: Mohegan

PLAINS TOWNSHIP, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)— A man investigators say was cheating at the casino is now facing charges.

According to police, officers were called to Mohegan Pennsylvania at 4:30 a.m. Monday regarding a cheating incident.

Police said they spoke with employees and were told they saw 47-year-old Jianchu Liu acting suspiciously at a baccarat table. Upon reviewing the security footage, police noted Liu was adjusting what appeared to be a phone underneath the scorecards.

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After the dealer stopped shuffling and allowed Liu to cut the deck, surveillance video showed Liu moving the dealer’s hands around to “dictate how he [the dealer] should be holding the deck.”

Liu left the table after the shuffle and the dealer replaced the cards according to the affidavit.

Employees told police they searched their database and found that Liu was part of a team of Baccarat cheats and had been reported for cheating at two other casinos in Missouri.

Officers say they reviewed further surveillance of Liu in the casino and watched him do similar actions as he did at the previous table at another table within the casino.

Liu was charged with two counts of knowingly by trick/fraud/manipulation to win or reduce a loss. This charge is filed when players attempt to manipulate a card shoe by cutting the cards in a manner that would reveal the cards’ number or picture to help win.

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The CIAC unveiled its boys basketball tournament brackets Wednesday afternoon. Local teams East Catholic (Division I), Cromwell (IV) and Windsor Locks (V) were all champions last year and all could make another run to the finals, held at Mohegan Sun Arena March 16-17.

Here’s a quick look at each division and some of the local teams involved:

East Catholic’s Brayden Jones (34) gets an uncontested dunk against Newington in a boys CCC semi-final game at the University of Hartford, West Hartford, Feb. 27, 2024. East Catholic won, 67-49 to advance to the championship game. Photo by Cloe Poisson/Special to the Courant

Division I: Three-time defending Division I champion East Catholic is the fifth seed and will not have an easy first game. The Eagles, who will play for the CCC tournament championship against Windsor Thursday, will face 12th-seeded Staples in a second-round game March 7. Staples (17-5) was the fourth seed in the FCIAC tournament and beat No. 1 Ridgefield 73-57 in the semifinal. The Wreckers will play Trumbull for the conference tournament title Thursday.

Division II: Manchester has come a long way since last season when the Red Hawks were the 26th seed in Division II and lost in the first round to Staples. Manchester is the No. 1 seed and will play the winner of Hamden-RHAM on Wednesday in the second round. Manchester lost to Farmington, 68-61 in the CCC tournament quarterfinals. Windsor, which lost in the Division II quarterfinals last year to eventual champion St….

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SHELTON, CT — A former Mohegan Elementary School music teacher accused of throwing books that hit two students in a class last year was recently charged by police and is scheduled to appear in court next week, according to court documents.

Laura Heckmann, 39, of New Fairfield, was arrested by Shelton police on Jan. 11. She is charged with disorderly conduct and two counts of risk of injury to a child, according to the state Judicial Branch.

According to an arrest warrant application obtained by Patch, the Shelton Police Department launched an investigation after a parent of a 9-year-old Mohegan School student reported the incident to police on March 28.

The parent told an officer Heckmann threw a music book at the child in school earlier that day and the book struck the child in the face, according to police.

An officer also spoke with the child, who confirmed their parent’s account of the incident. The child also said Heckmann “was normally upset and yelling at the kids in the classroom” and had “yelled swear words at students,” according to police.

The child noted being hit by the music book “hurt a little bit” but the child was not injured as a result of the incident, according to the warrant. An officer confirmed the child had no visible injuries, according to police.

The child told police they also saw Heckmann throw a music book at another student in the class that day, according to police. The child said the book hit the second student in the chest, causing that student to cry, according to police.

Speaking to police through an interpreter, a parent of the second student said their child confirmed Heckmann threw a music book and hit them in the chest, documents state. The parent also noted the child was “okay,…

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UNCASVILLE, Conn. — With two minutes left in the third quarter Tuesday, the ECC Division II boys basketball tournament championship was anybody’s game.

Wheeler and Stonington were tied at 39. The action was tight, with no team leading by more than six. A Mohegan Sun Arena crowd of 3,000 — seemingly all of Wheeler’s 233 students and half of North Stonington’s 5,100 population — deliriously cheered and expected a fantastic finish.

Wheeler, however, was determined that this would not go down to the final minutes. The Lions essentially finished it in 120 seconds, closing out the third with a 13-2 run to lead 52-41 after three and turn the fourth quarter into a coronation of Wheeler basketball and second-year coach Stephen Bailey.

The little school from North Stonington, never a factor in the ECC postseason mix, shined on the biggest stage with a 65-51 victory for the Lions’ first ECC tournament championship in Bailey’s second year as coach.

“We just played Wheeler basketball: get a stop, rebound, get on the break, run our sets and score, get another stop and repeat,” Bailey said. “After we got up by 11, I talked to the team before the fourth quarter and said, ‘You deserve to be in this spot. Let’s finish this off make history and do something you’ll remember the rest of your lives.'”

Wheeler (17-6) was building to this point with four senior starters who made the state tournament as sophomores under former coach Neil Cobleigh and amped up to 17-win teams and ECC Division IV regular season titles the last two years for Bailey, a Stonington…

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