Gambler accused of $941K con on Prospect man
Armed only with the gift of gab — and some allegedly forged documents — a man with a history as a con artist is charged with fleecing an elderly Prospect businessman out of more than $941,000 over two years.
And the victim is unlikely to get his money back.
Gambling on a nearly daily basis, Roger Dale Goodman, 53, the alleged culprit, lost at least $900,000 of the total the Horseshoe Casino in Southern Indiana, according to court records.
Goodman is charged in U.S. District Court in Louisville with fraud after allegedly lying to the businessman — identified only as R.B. — about needing the money because his son was being "framed" by "corrupt Bullitt County government officials and law enforcement."
Goodman, who was indicted last month and faces trial Nov. 6, has pleaded not guilty and has been released on an unsecured $25,000 bond. He lives in the South End of Louisville and declined to talk to a reporter who came to his door.
The scheme began when Goodman and the man met at a bar on New Year's Day in 2012, according to an affidavit filed by a Secret Service agent who investigated.
The man began giving Goodman cash from his business account, in meetings outside BB&T branches where he did his banking, Agent John Eric Cothran said in the affidavit. Eventually the man cashed out IRAs to pay him more.
To continue the flow, Goodman allegedly presented the man with Bullitt County bond receipts and other documents showing that criminal charges were continuing to be added to his son's case.
He also gave R.B. a "debt acknowledgment" — on stationery of Louisville lawyer Bill Butler and supposedly prepared by him — promising to repay the man $972,560 "upon release of the bonds."
On Jan. 16, 2004, Goodman called R.B. and told him the case had been transferred to federal court and was pending there before a "Judge Connelly."
But by then the man had grown suspicious. He recorded the call. And he hired a lawyer, whose private investigator found there were no charges pending against Goodman's son in Bullitt County other than a DUI, according to the affidavit.
The private eye also discovered the bond receipts were forged, that there is no federal judge named Connelly, and no federal case against Goodman's son.
Butler, who had won an acquittal for Goodman on drug charges several years earlier, told Cothran that he only handles criminal cases, didn't write the promissory note and that it was forged on his stationery.
Records subpoenaed in October by a federal grand that showed Goodman gambled almost daily at the casino from Jan 5, 2012 — five days after he met R.B. — until last October, losing $993,208 against winnings of only $29,850.
He used part of the money he allegedly took from R.B. to buy a $33,400 Dodge Ram pickup truck in cash, which the government has seized.
Goodman faces wire fraud charges punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
His lawyer, Jonathan Clark Baird, said in an interview that the transactions between Goodman and R.B. were merely loans.
"This case is about two friends with a dispute over money," Baird said in an interview. "There is a written note between the parties. Even if it was unseemly or distasteful, that is not the same thing as criminal or illegal."
R.B.'s attorney, Jon Heck, declined to identify him or to talk about the case, to protect his privacy and spare him further embarrassment.
The indictment identifies him only by his initials, as is routine in federal court.
Baird described Goodman as a "good guy and a family man," but court records show that he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1998 on a conviction for theft by failure to make required disposition, and three years on the same charge that year in a Bullitt County case.
Indiana records show he was charged in Harrison County in 2006 with theft in another incident in which he allegedly also used forged records to bilk people, according to state police Detective Bill Wibbles.
Mills said he got $15,000 back and is still awaiting the rest. The charges were dismissed when Goodman agreed to pay restitution, according to court records and attorney William H. "Bill" Davis, who sued on behalf of victims and collected a $300,000 judgment that he hasn't been able to get Goodman to pay.
Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189