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CA State Champion*/LA Calcutta {long, boring}

Posted By: neilkaz
Date: Thursday, 10 December 2009, at 12:41 a.m.

In Response To: CA State Champion*/LA Calcutta {long, boring} (Bill Riles)

Bill states and I agree 100% "Patrick has a terribly difficult job and I have the utmost respect for him. I know he always attempts to objectively make the most fair ruling based on the evidence. But by asking Norm what happened and then discounting his testimony -- the only non-participant testimony -- does he not call Norm's integrity into question? As an aside, I can think of no one I know in the ABT community I have a higher regard for than Norm Wiggins -- certainly, in my estimation, a number of others equal his integrity and regard, but none surpass.

How could it have been most fairly resolved? I don't know. I think all tournament directors must recognize in such circumstances who the witnesses are (and ascertain any potential bias) and establish, among the witnesses, who was there during the actual event in question. Only then, should the director ask for input from those witnesses he/she deems qualified, impartial, and whose testimony he/she will accept. Among these 'qualified' witnesses, testimony, and refusal to testify, should then be considered. And, of course, a director's 'qualification' of witnesses can only take us down another slippery slope.

I don't personally know for certain what happened or who was telling the truth. Based solely on the testimony of Norm Wiggins I would have decided in favor of Ray -- it being the only non-participant testimony. Rolling for high die to make a decision must be the absolute last option -- these are civil matters (usually, lol) so the 'preponderance of the evidence' should govern, not 'any reasonable doubt'."

Neil..I reply that this incident occured behind the late night match that I was playing vs Justin Nunez in the Conso. My back was turned so I didn't see what happened.

Anyhow, I have known all of the California players mentioned here for almost 30 years and consider all of them to be friends and hope that they all will still consider me to be a friend after reading this post.

First off all, Norm Wiggins would tell the truth even if it meant sending his own brother to the gas chamber. One does have to wonder why Richard Armbruster wouldn't say anything, unless he'd missed what happened, but he didn't say that. As for Bob Glass saying that he didn't see it, it certainly is possible to be sitting there and to have looked away or to not recall who rolled what first. In nearly 30 years (recall I used to live in CA) I have never seen any actions from either Richard nor Bob to indicate anything except the highest integrity so I must assume both missed what happened and that Norm was the only one who saw it completely. Norm wouldn't lie about a BG situation, I can assure you all of that.

Here's what I am getting at and noting that BG must be a gentlemans' game if it is to prosper. Please note that I am NOT pointing fingers at Bob or Richard here as I can certainly see how they weren't paying complete attention to the game.

All kibs when asked by the director have an obligation to speak truthfully about what they've witnessed ! It doesn't matter if this will likely result in a ruling against your best friend, wife, GF, son or whatever, you should state what you saw rather than clamming up, and for the good of the game and to make the director's decision easier.

Just my opinion .. neilkaz ..

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