BY TOM SOMACH

Just weeks after an off-duty policeman was caught playing poker at an illegal poker club in Indiana, an off-duty judge has been caught playing poker at an illegal poker club in Georgia.

According to media reports out of Georgia, officers from the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office and the Morrow, Ga., Police Dept. raided the club, in Jonesboro, Ga., on April 10, and arrested 52 people, including a magistrate judge who was playing poker in the club.

One of the 52, Wayne Reinhardt,=A0 the poker club co-owner, was charged with keeping a place of gambling and possession of gambling equipment, both felonies, the reports said.

Reinhardt was also charged with illegal gambling, a misdemeanor, as were the other 51, the reports said.

In addition, another man was arrested for trying to bribe a law enforcement officer,

in an effort to keep the club from getting busted, media reports said.

Before the raid, a co-owner of the Poker Palace, Mike Adams, and another man, Norman Earl, invited Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill to lunch to talk to him about the Poker Palace, and at that meeting, Earl offered Hill an envelope containing $500, an offer that was later upped to $5,000, the reports said.

Earl was charged with bribery and an investigation continues concerning Adams, the reports said.

Law enforcement officers who raided the club also found cocaine and ecstasy pills on the premises, but no one was charged with any drug offenses, media reports said.

The club had a sign in front saying “Poker Palace” and supposedly only offered poker lessons, but inside were poker tables for real-money play as well as slot machines, the reports said.

Ironically, the illegal club was located less than a mile from the sheriff’s office, the reports said.

The judge who was arrested was identified by Georgia media as as part-time Clayton County Magistrate Judge Dorian Murry, who is also a part-time attorney.

Murry has been placed on administrative leave, media reports said.

Last month, an illegal poker club that was next door to a church was raided in Indianapolis, Indiana.

In that bust, one of the people nabbed for playing poker was a longtime canine officer with the Indiana State Police.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)