Niagara ReporterNiagara Falls, New York– The Seneca Niagara Casino may have gotten a bad roll of the dice today.
Raymond Keith John, the director of tables games for the Seneca’s massive casino in Niagara Falls, has a warrant against him for felony charges of intimidation in Indiana.
John, a Native American, age 50, belongs to the Oneida tribe. He built the Seneca’s lucrative table games business from opening day in 2003 to the present.
John commands “the pits,” – where gamblers play against the house in games of chance, such as cards, roulette, craps, and baccarat. He ensures the casino takes in more than it loses.
John’s intimidation charges stem from a vicious war of charges and counter-charges with one of his former employees at the casino, Carrie Lynn Ann Kearns.
The Indiana warrant is outstanding.
John, who ranked four levels above Kearns, began a relationship with his employee, a dealer, that turned volatile.
Keith John and Carrie Kearns worked together at the Seneca Niagara Casino.
John got his licks in too. He got a restraining order, which removed Kearns from his house in Lewiston, where they lived together.
John, a 6’1″ black belt member of the Welland Ontario Martial Arts dojo, claimed Kearns, at 5’1″ and 100 pounds, punched him with a close fist, and she intimidated him.
Black belt martial artist Keith John shows his form at the dojo.
On the other hand, Kearns claims John beat her unconscious on January 23, 2022.
Carrie Kearns’ description of the January 23 alleged beating.
She did not immediately file a police report, she said, but the lingering head trauma she suffered prompted her to get medical attention. Hospital records list her as a victim of assault.
Lewiston Police declined to press charges against the powerfully connected John, whose employers paid Lewiston police for protection services at the casino in the past and currently own the lucrative golf course in town.
Over the next few months, following his alleged assault on Kearns, John began making a series of charges against Kearns, alleging he violated the protective order by calling him on the phone.
From happy times to a brutal conclusion.
Photos taken on January 23, according to Carrie Kearns right after she alleged Keith John beat her.
Carrie Johns lost her job and spent time in jail for calling Keith John on the telephone.
According to Kearns, when John threw her out of the house they lived in together, he refused to return her possessions.
Though Kearns called John merely seeking a return of her possessions, she says Lewiston Police hit her hard with felonies for each of half a dozen calls.
Former lovers turned adversaries, Carrie Keanrs and Keith John, during happier times.
During their turbulent relationship, John allegedly visited Kearns at her residence several times and invited her to see him, despite the restraining order.
Finally, Kearns moved to Indiana to work as a dealer at Horseshoe Indianapolis Casino. But she lost her job after John got Lewiston police to charge her with the felony contempt of court for calling him.
Returning from Indiana to Lewiston, New York court, Kearns was arrested and jailed for almost 60 days because she could not make the $50,000 bail.
Lewiston Town Judge Hugh Gee set bail at $50,000 for Carrie Lynn Ann Kearns for calling Raymond Keith John on the phone. Lewiston police decline to charge John for an alleged assault and rape of Kearns, who spend 40 days in Niagara County Correctional facility.
According to the Madison County Indiana Prosecutor’s Office, John, despite a New York restraining order he sought to protect him from Kearns, allegedly sent Kearns a series of threatening texts while she was in Indiana.
According to Kearns, John threatened to do her grave bodily harm.
He now faces arrest if he enters Indiana, Michigan, Illinois or Ohio and may face extradition.
The Senecas follow strict protocols for the safety of their employees and the public. According to Kearns, John has dated several of his employees and is not only in danger of arrest but also of losing his high-paid position with the Senecas as director of table games.
Seneca Niagara Casino table games.
Not to be outdone in this fight between ex-lovers, John recently filed another felony contempt of court charge against Kearns for calling him on the phone.
Lewiston Police arrested Kearns in court on February 7, and she spent the night in jail. Kearns claims that though she called John in the past and even met him at his request during the pendency of the restraining order, she did not call him this time.
Lewiston Police have not provided evidence that Kearns made the call. The Niagara County District Attorney’s Office should have provided discovery evidence to Kearns within the required 14 days discovery period that showed Kearns made any call to John, according to Kearns.
Lewiston Police appear to have only John’s word for Kearn’s alleged phone call. Kearns said she never called him.
She told the Reporter, “After he beat me unconscious on January 23, 2022, I gave up on the relationship. I loved him, yes. I hoped we could overcome our difficulties. But he almost killed me, and then when I went to Indiana to start a new life, he texted me and said he would find me and that I could not run. He would get me and harm me. Then he had me charged with communicating with him, a felony, so I lost my job.
“I did not want to press charges, but I was concerned. Indiana prosecutors saw this as potentially a real threat to my life and refused to drop the charges. It is understandable, since sometimes men who threaten to do grave bodily harm follow through on their threats, and Indiana would look reckless if they dropped the charges and he later did hurt me again, coming to Indiana as he threatened and find me.”
Meanwhile, Kearns faces a misdemeanor sentencing on March 21 for aggravated harassment and now a new felony contempt charge for an alleged phone call she says she never made, and police
inexplicably cannot produce any evidence the call was ever made.
John faces a felony 6 charge in Indiana, punishable by up to two and half years in prison, and the loss of a lucrative job, managing the table games of cards, roulette, craps, and baccarat.
A felony charge is only an allegation; a defendant is innocent until proven guilty.
The Niagara Falls Reporter reached John by phone. He declined to comment.
It is hard to say if John’s luck has not run out.
Indiana Victim Assistance letter to Carrie Kearns shows charge against Raymond Keith John.
