In response to my story: Seneca Casino Director Charged With Felony Against Ex-Employee/Lover, I got a lot of Keith John supporters, primarily anonymous, condemning Carrie Kearns, saying she is solely at fault and being a nutcase too.
I was also blamed for writing the story based on court documents and Kearn’s comments.
I tried to get John’s side of it, but he chose not to comment when reached by phone.
I reported he has a felony charge in Indiana for allegedly sending text messages threatening her. It’s news because he is a top executive for the Seneca Nation’s casino in Niagara Falls.
Keith John, Director of Table Games, Seneca Niagara Casino, facing charges for sending texts.
Here is my take on it, subject to change through further investigation.
There was a significant power advantage he had from the start.
You’d think the director of table games at the Seneca Niagara Casino would know better – if for no other reason but not to bring disgrace to the Senecas.
After all, he was her boss at the casino. He was four levels over her. She was a dealer, making $8 per hour plus tips. Sure, she loved his attention. And yes, she, as an adult, agreed to go out with him. Maybe she wanted to. But even if she did not, how do you tell the big boss you aren’t going out with him when he asks, knowing he could get you fired, change your hours or make life hell?
They went out for months before she moved in. After that, they lived together for almost a year. And he kept her working as a dealer after their relationship.
I became suspicious when I read his statement for why he needed a restraining order. He said Kearns punched him with a closed fist, and he needed protection. I found this curious since she is 5’1″ and 100 lbs. and he is 6′, 220 lbs. and has a black belt in karate.
Carrie Kearns, fired from Casino, facing charges for making phone calls.
Kearns claims John beat her up after forcing her to have sex. Lewiston Police did not press charges against John. Yet they pressed felony charges against Kearns for phone calls.
She says he kept her late father’s stained-glass window and other sentimental items after he threw her out. If that is true, why not return them?
She says he kept $8,000 of her cash. That was her contribution to their wedding fund, she said. She shows a bank withdrawal slip made two days before he threw her out of his house they lived in together. He got a restraining order, and had her tossed out by police.
She left, but the $8,000 stayed, she says. It was all the money she had.
He is a well-paid executive. After tossing her out, why not give her something to move on with her life?
Instead, he argues in court that he once spent $4,000 fixing her car, so she owes him, and he does not have to return her father’s possessions.
Now he has to spend much more in legal fees to defend against serious felony charges.
These two are at war, and she and he both face prison. She already has 40 days in jail.
She will be sentenced on March 21 for an A misdemeanor for calling him on the phone while under a restraining order. He pressed the charges.
Yet, while under a restraining order, he invited her back into his house and visited her house in Hamburg. Why did he keep bringing her back, despite the restraining order that he sought?
John had Kearns sign a paper he drew up in the Seneca Casino offices wherein she admits she has mental issues. She says he required her confession to allow her to move back in with him again [while the restraining order was in effect.]
She signed it. So, does this make her look bad? I think it makes him look bad.
After their final split, John continued to press charges against her for phone calls. He saw her jailed for this. A woman he invited to live in his house with him. A woman he said he planned to marry.
She moved to Indiana. He was free of her. But he invited her back into his house, allegedly had sex with her, then allegedly beat her because she got jealous.
Sure, that was stupid of her to go inside. But, if he is the better person, he would not have invited her back.
Carrie Kearns left Niagara and got a job at the Indianappolis Horseshoe casino. Keith John got her fired and she had to return home.
And he would not have texted and threatened her, if he did, as it is alleged in Indiana. He would have tried to get her help, not imprison her.
But she owes him, he said in court because he fixed her car. So, he gets to keep her possessions. And if she calls to get them back — he gets her charged with a felony.
Alright. All legal. All within the law. A sick girl, a depressed girl, whom he has sign a document that she is mentally ill, and who thought she was in love with him.
With his money and connections, he got her hauled into court and fired from her job at both the Seneca Casino and in Indiana – a dumb move since she would have been gone and out of his hair.
He seems to have gotten her fired from a waitressing job in the Buffalo area too when she had to return after losing her job in Indiana.
Then, when she calls him, he goes to local police, who know him and know his important position, and heaps another felony on her.
For a phone call.
As we look into this further, we will find out more. Maybe he is a victim. Perhaps she is a monster. Or maybe he is.
Or maybe they both are to blame for a battle they cannot contain between themselves and got the public courts involved so everyone knows about it now.
But here is where the power imbalance hurts him not her. She already lost everything. She works for minimum wage and faces sentencing. He has a big job ripe for the cutting.
Where is his common sense? When does he take steps to protect his employers?
Some of the things she says about the way the casino operated are criminal.
She has so many stories about the inner workings of the Seneca casino. Stories about him, the books, the executives, and some of the customers, stuff she learned from him. Some of it is very damaging if it is true.
Federal offenses. And the sovereign Senecas are not beyond the reach of the federal government for federal crimes.
Yet he let her go to jail, this supposedly mentally ill girl he once proposed marriage to and bought her a ring and made her sign a confession of mental illness in order to move back in.
Did he try to help her?
He put her in jail because she called him on the phone.
Now he depends on being a poor, weak little victim of her.
He could have been smarter. He could have handled this with a bit of class and never let it get to where it went. The last felony he charged her with was for a single phone call he says she made in February. It seems he did not provide the police with evidence. Just his word. No phone records. They hit her with a felony.
A single phone call, the first one made in more than four months – and right away he goes for the felony – without evidence, it appears, just his word.
If it was true that she called [she denies it] and he was really looking to end this, he might have sent word to her attorney – “hey, she called again – for the first time in four months. Please tell her not to do that again.”
Knowing she’s up for sentencing in March, he laid in ambush, waited until she appeared for a court hearing, then had Lewiston police handcuff her and send her overnight to jail – with a new felony charge.
Now he got a bomb blast in return — the public exposure of a felony charge in Indiana. And the charges stem from an employee he plucked from the Seneca casino, then got her fired.
She has more bombs coming, as she tells her story, a story she most likely would not have told had he returned her possessions and not gone after her with felonies for phone calls.
But it takes two to tango. It would have ended if he wanted to stop dancing.
He could have blocked her calls or talked to her sensibly, telling her in a kindly way not to keep calling. Then blocked her phone number. And if she called on another line, he could speak gently again, patiently and hung up. After a while, she would give up.
It seems, in his passion to dig her grave, he fell into the hole with her. Maybe she egged him on, sure, but he was not smart enough to apply the tactics of love and kindness to a forlorn woman or even to apply the wisdom not to fight down.
He adopted a warrior posture with a little woman he once shared his bed with and then scorned. He would destroy her.
Then the worm turned.
These two would be wise to have their attorneys settle this matter and put it behind them.