statement saying in part quote jake today is taking an important step in accepting responsibility for his actions although this brings us closer to resolution it's not over we love him and will stand by him throughout end quote jacob nichols will be sentenced in december affecting up a guilty plea from the son of seattle's mayor in connection with the cheating ring local bar nichols was in a federal courtroom today as his son jacob pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy nickels and his wife look somber as they left the federal courthouse today just minutes after their son jacob pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in a statement released soon after nichols says quote jake today is taking an important step in accepting responsibility for his actions we love him and will stand by him throughout jacob and his lawyer also declined to comment on camera about the federal crime he has now confessed to but the younger nichols was clearly grateful his father is willing to publicly support him a today's guilty plea stems from a scheme that cheated the exact river casino and the exact tribe out of more than ninety thousand dollars the masterminds behind the plan taught dealers at many baccarat tables how to do false card shuffles so they could win the games and federal prosecutors say since nichols was the pit boss in charge of those card tables he played a critical role in the scam he was the one who was first approached by the tran organization by a member of this organization so the law says that the record casino in the next sac tribe sustained more because he facilitated he made introductions to the dealers who did the cheat at the tables nichols has agreed to reimburse the money to the tribe and prosecutors say he was quick to admit responsibility i can say that mr nichols through his attorney expressed interest very early on in cooperating with law enforcement to take a scheduled to be sentenced in december the maximum sentence under the standard range for the crime that introductions to the dealers who did to cheat at the tables the payout was part of millions allegedly stolen by a casino cheating ring that hit eighteen casinos in california washington and indiana ten of them are owned by tribes at the maximum sentence of five years in prison and a two hundred fifty thousand dollars fine but in today's police shows that we're all equal under the law and mayor nickels refused comment on camera today but he did issue a written statement that says in part jake today is taking an important step in accepting responsibility for his actions although this brings us closer to a resolution it is not over we love him and will stand by him throughout jacob nichols is scheduled to be sentenced in december live in seattle boss he was the one who was first approached by the tran organization in court nichols admitted he accepted five thousand dollars in bribes to introduce a member of the tran organ zation a gambling ring to car dealers introductions to the dealers who did the cheat at the table jacob nichols parents sat behind him in court when he told a federal magistrate he is guilty mayor greg nickels and his wife refused to comment when they left the courthouse he did issue this statement saying in part jake today is taking an important step in accepting responsibility for his actions we love him and will stand by him throughout what do you think will come up at sentencing when something comes up i really don't want to comment until sentencing will definitely have something  after sentencing investigators determined that the conspirators stole a total of ninety thousand dollars from the notes in part of his plea agreement today jacob nichols agreed to pay back ninety thousand five hundred ten dollars to the casino he now also must still be sentenced that comes up in december at the federal courthouse in seattle denise what are called for news they could get up to five years in prison the ninety thousand dollars stolen from the knox that casino was a drop in the bucket compared to what the gambling ring stole across the country investigators say they got away with more than three million  dollars this morning jacob nichols could face significant prison time for his role in a casino cheating or a king five chris daniels is live at the federal courthouse in seattle with the latest on this course he's already pled guilty what now you know that's right carol and he's going to find out a little bit later on this morning he pled guilty back in august to conspiracy to commit theft from a tribal d b an establishment and he'll find out just how much time he'll spend behind bars here at the federal courthouse just about a couple hours from now twenty six year old jacob nichols false shuffles and masterminds then stole more than ninety thousand bucks from the casino nichols got five grand for his role he was the one who was first approached by the tran organization by a member of this organization so the law says that the next record casino in the next sac tribe sustained more because he facilitated he made introductions to the dealers who did the cheat at the tables the mayor's son has agreed to reimburse the casino for the theft prosecutors say his role was just a small part of a larger cheating scheme involving eighteen casinos including the emerald queen near tacoma twenty four people in all have been charged in the case and besides those five years in prison jacob nichols is also robinson the attorney for the defendant should be coming out to make a statement gregory j most likely will not say anything but you never know boy would do well not to say anything too because he came out you know right down this walkway here a few feet over there with a smirk on his face the last time and you know nichols were they they were that mr it was like just like oh yeah and they said he was clearly grateful to have the support of dad the mayor of the city of seattle clearly grateful but you know that was it wasn't clear that he was crazy but was clear is that he had a big smirk on his face you know it's just it's just a high profile defense want to want a little little tiny smile the kind of a bowed head that's what you do when you're getting off on big parking charges you know that could've gotten five years when you're confident you're going to get off of gets off with no time and the miss that there was only five thousand dollars that state that will be a travesty and that you know there's a pretty clear indication in  you do that with a gun you didn't like ten years federal time no no no possibility of parole right and you know it is obviously less serious to do it with and i mean ten years plus this point there's been no indication from mr tate london j j london that he was going that way until earlier this week when the sentencing memorandum was published as a matter of filing it with the court called the sentencing memorandum and you know i was told by the media person with u s attorney that oh i'm sure the a p is monitoring that and there will probably be a story there has been no story well that some three months range for this sort of crime is ten to sixteen months no that is actually the advisory guideline range and as was stated in court the courts are not obligated to impose such an advisory guideline range that's just a starting point in the course determination a sense to impose a what specifically though was compelling to you in recommending five months rather than the apparent minimum of ten month the ten to sixteen months guideline range ten months is a minimum of that it's a zone c offense for zone c offenses the court in this advisory framework has the discretion to split a sentence and impose say five months imprisonment and five months on the fine so that was the basis for why did the prosecution recommend half of the minimum just considering all the facts and circumstances here it seemed to be an appropriate ongoing role in the theft of the the monies in fact that didn't he get a cell phone call from one of the conspirators when the when the gig was up as it was described but that's true and i made that comment in court also in our sentencing memorandum and so you believe that mr nichols jacob nichols was involved in the staff scheme on an ongoing basis his involvement was much more than just introducing the criminals to the workers who were available to commit  it would only take you a second if you wanted to offer an apology do you think that you might publicly offer an apology to the native peoples who you are still ninety thousand dollars f say hi jake you're a big time convicted federal criminal now what's the reason for the continual smirk you had it on your face when you pled guilty and had it on your face all day today an explanation for the continual smirk on your face is there something amusing about committing federal crime do you think your father being the mayor of the city of seattle richelle ninety eight years a lot of memories and that place the son of seattle mayor greg nickels will spend three months in federal prison jacob nichols pleaded guilty in august to conspiring to steal from the river casino he says he excepted five thousand dollars bribes to introduce members of a gambling ring to crooked car dealers as part of a plea agreement nichols will pay back more than ninety thousand dollars to the casino he could have spent up to sixteen months behind bars renton police have a warning about a rape  just in case you don't believe me paranoid it's one of those words like conspiracy we said earlier in the show gregory j nichols jason dyson nichols guilty of conspiracy conspiracy to rip off the poorest people in the united states tribal india it's right now you know the people who are close to the casino action and the people who benefited from that no doubt they've moved themselves from the traditional status of native americans as the p who told us over and over again i'd be delighted to talk with you want to come on in and talk to me here in the courthouse and then when i said i was going to do it he said ok we're going to be leaving at noon for the weekend and i said oh you mean if i can get over there in the next thirty eight minutes we can have a conversation in less than thirty eight minutes about something which i can't do i'm not anywhere near the courthouse moment so i had this conversation with him and i said look just he was just pushing pushing pushing for a meeting where we get together i'm allowed to take notes but i'm not allowed to be a member of the media i mean i am a sit down with the guy and then he's going to presumably say oh yeah by the way you can't broadcast anything i tell you because you've agreed not to be a member of the media for the purposes of this conversation anyway there's no reason to do what i just said look it's going to be incredibly fun interesting to me next week so why do you just give me a ten word explanation it's not an interview this is a ten word statement on what happened today in terms of my being removed from the courthouse why don't you just tell me that and and he refused like half a dozen times just to give me the ten word explanation but at the end of the conversation which is about ten minutes i had him over and over again clarify i am welcome in the courthouse there should be no lingering perception among anyone there this up you know we would be pretty sweet to get the reporters in front of the courthouse again the guy in five i at six am and probably at five and a half he was out here in the pitch dark that slipped in there you knew at the last moment that i didn't notice i'll have to check our record on that but i believe what we're going to see in the in the broadcast this evening is pool tape someone agreed to pool with  they they ran file footage they had a bit of something from today but then the file footage that they had was partially the perp walk and the guy did write out here that nichols did write out here on  you know several months ago august it was august thirty first was the actual plea day and they didn't say file footage they made it look like they shot it today that was really deceptive bastards i mean i know the difference but they're not really letting you know the difference here so i'm guessing that what we're going to see on the on the broadcast this evening is just a little bit of spicy eyebrow work or something on the part of the anchors but no good in kissinger taken saying he's an alright boy that's what they really would have wanted and they didn't get that of course because for whatever reason k c w i am showing up certainly could be the reason why was joey buttafuoco driving the perimeter this morning thirteen minutes before court and the guy from five said that nichols entered in the side he said that in conversation and then i asked him to reiterate that he said no no nichols came right in the front and preparing to do this monologue and but just to to emphasize a little bit what i'm discussing right now when this came out i was looking at some of the old t v footage too from the from august thirty first and i'm it was a drop in the bucket the ninety thousand dollars was just a drop in the bucket compared to the three million dollars that the overall crime scheme was involved in a drop in the bucket will you know nearly one hundred thousand dollars that's like three percent three percent is sparkle for a drop in a bucket is like one one hundred one one thousandth of one percent not three percent take a dice nichols was involved in like three percent of the kind as far as we know and you know one other thing and now that we're wrapping the hour to to reiterate and emphasize here is you know my last question first of all i did get the question i haven't seen the footage yet but i got the question how to  sent half of the minimum minimum being ten months maximum being sixteen months and this is after he played this thing out and let the guy off on four out of five counts why did you recommend half of the minimum and then the judge who now or only gives the guy three months out of the final three months on a minimum of ten months less than one third of the minimum is what he got and of course the baffling thing is why is that the prosecutor would recommend it he sees convenience considered as a fully cooperating witness but he was so guilty they couldn't turn him into informants and  characterize it that way because he was right at the center of the action regardless of what the media is telling and the other business that london would describe in his own words except to say yes that is in my sentencing memorandum is this idea but even though the media keeps telling you that and tate did j t london also told people he did the introductions to the people who did the actual crimes and that's why he has to be convicted and punished introduction not it sounds like maybe he's completely not guilty he just did an introduction of the criminals to the casino workers i mean obviously they're applying  saying you know in the papers that that was what facilitated the crime and he knew that but in introduction it sounds like if he really really wanted to you know believe in the guy that he would be maybe completely innocent he just introduced a casino workers to memorandum they finally come up with a little nugget to let people know this guy is guilty of all piss which is when this guy george lee was barred from the casino at the moment or you he was there you know looking from thirty feet away while the crimes were going down that remains undefined as far as what i know so far i'll be looking further at the a court papers to define an d an absolute way but then again the last point i'd want to make here and really the most important point is the last question i got out to j tate which is are you really satisfied that five reality mr lee it's what's in the plea agreement so it's what's going to be reported in the media but in fact you know if you took ten times that amount as a downpayment on all the criminal activity that he was going to coordinate i mean really that would be on the scale that would make sense it doesn't make sense and the other effect that's left out that i don't think has been published anywhere that i kind of wanted to ask the casino manager from the tribe today but i jeopardize his hill livelihood plus freedom plus everything else for the purposes of scoring a month's wages this makes no sense so you know there's a substantial reason to course a great moment in the history of this story because you know it's been nichols versus yours truly since two thousand and one and before and there are very few political rivalries know there's this really no reason for anyone to be emphasizing the drama in a political rivalry most people in city politics in any city will downplay the rivalry aspect of it but here in seattle last point to emphasize here in case you're missing another direct connection to the case that we've we've made over and over again and we obviously pursued and grilled the city attorney about this and he didn't deny it which is they pursued me for twenty two months to try to give me up to a year in the slammer for kicking officer p j a box office and a so called p j box and they dropped the case on on or about may twenty fourth the very same day convict even though mr lee is completely innocent and that the whole incident is on videotape he spent twenty two months trying to put that shit down on me and they had to drop it all but sonny boy his son was convicted you know twelve hundred miles away in florida for some savings and loan thing but you know what had the reek of organized crime and for mario cuomo to have us on news convicted in organized crime  was the worst possible development if he ever wanted to run for president or anything skate and this isn't even on t v the monologue i'm doing now will be on t v in january maybe maybe never this monologue it will get buried because there's always the internet even though i'm not technically equipped to do that well and enjoy i know you're watching j d enjoy that time for your federal crime  cafe you go in there and you know there may be some extra special sneaky way to get into the building but it's certainly not obvious at the other end if i walk through there twice that the other end of do the perp walk of course there are little doors and stuff here but they've they don't extend it to the people they're prosecuting the benefit of being able to slip out the back and  crooked car dealers he pleaded guilty back in august in court today nichols apologized to the next sac tribe for what he called the biggest mistake of his life the son of seattle's mayor is sentenced and gambling fraud federal custody and one hundred twenty days in home confinement he also has to pay a ninety thousand dollars restitution that sentence satisfied tribal leaders or it's just taking money thing by accepting responsibility for his actions and cooperating with investigators we love our son and will continue to support him in the months and years ahead of nichols will spend three months after that in home confinement nichols admitted he conspired to steal from the next aquiver casino where he worked as a pit boss the mayor issued a statement saying this has been a very difficult time for our family and today's decision will help bring this issue to a close well the next few months won't be easy for any of us sharon and i know that jake did the right thing by accepting responsibility for his actions and cooperating with investigators of seattle near greg nickels learns his punishment for conspiring to steal from the casino he worked for former pit boss jacob nichols was sentenced to three months in prison three months of home detention and community service he pleaded guilty in august to helping dealers that the next attack were casino learn how to file shuffle and money from the gaming tables also as part of his plea agreement hannah's coconspirators will have to pay more than ninety thousand dollars in restitution son of seattle's mayor is headed to federal prison twenty six year old jacob nichols will spend three months in prison for his role in a casino cheating scam it was also ordered to repay the exact indian tribe more than ninety thousand dollars nichols was a pit boss of the knicks act river casino when he was recruited to participate in the scheme that cost casinos in several states millions of dollars but mayor greg nickels will spend time in prison for his role in a gambling fraud scheme today jacob nichols was sentenced to three months in federal custody followed by one hundred twenty days of home confinement and ordered to pay ninety thousand dollars in restitution for conspiring to cheat the new river casino the mayor and his wife sharon say they love their son and will continue to support him runs through january second the son of seattle mayor greg nickels will spend three months in a federal prison and another three months in home confinement for his role in a casino scam months in federal prison for his role in a casino cheating scam and jacob nichols pleaded guilty in august to charges he conspired to steal from the new river casino where he worked as a pit boss two years ago nichols will also spend three months in home confinement and pay more than ninety thousand dollars in restitution jacob nichols was sentenced today for his role in that indian casino gambling scheme as his mother and father looked o twenty six year old jacob nichols said little on his way into court but as his mayor father and mother looked on he admitted and apologized for his role in a complicated casino theft scheme nichols was a pit boss for the knicks sack river casino in october two thousand and five when the plot masterminds gave him five grand to introduce them to two dealers the dealers did so called false shuffles allowing the schemers to win games and take home thousands of dollars u s district judge john sentence one of those dealers casey mckillop to three months in federal custody and one hundred twenty days in home confinement jacob nichols who said in court he made the biggest mistake of his life also got three months in a federal facility and three more months of home confinement the ruling put his mother sharon in tears jacob nichols attorney jeff robbins jake has asked me to deliver is that jake is disappointed with his behavior and the sentence as a result of his behavior i think the court has sent a very strong message that if you steal from a tribal casino it is a very serious offense and you will be punished it's just not taking money from a casino it's taking services from our people for our elders for our children and tribal council member bill coleman whose group relies heavily on casino cash flow says this scheme hurt but he's happy with the sen satisfied and i think we got the best that we could jacob nichols will also have to pay back the roughly ninety thousand dollars that was lost from the looks at river casino at the federal courthouse in seattle chris daniels king five now mayor greg nickels just issued this statement about his son quote sharon and i know that jake did the right thing by accepting responsibility for his actions and cooperating with investigators we love our son and will continue to support him in the months and years ahead steve who isn't here tonight then i know you did this last year you have any advice for me to you know not look like