In almost all of the situations I've seen where a poker player or media member is accused of malfeasance, they end up being either guilty or most likely guilty.
This is one rare case where I have no idea.
Tonight the following was reported on The "UAW Local 2121" Facebook page, which is purported to be "exclusively for the Assistant Supervisors & Dealers whom are part of our UAW Local 2121".
From what I can tell, the page is authentic, and has been around for a long time.
Attention All Poker Dealers:
What I am about to inform you all is highly disturbing and very upsetting to me and all who have been involved with this process.
First off I would like to thank George, Eric and Angela for all their hard and diligent work in taking care of the Poker Dealers concerning this issue.
We had a theft in the Poker Room of tournament tip money by Jay Newmun. He was hired by Foxwoods sometime back as a live video blogger to cover daily poker tournaments. He was caught just before Christmas after video coverage was reviewed and subsequently arrested and charged with the crime of theft after he confessed to the crime.
After meeting with a lead investigator at Foxwoods it was determined that Mr. Newmun on both Dec. 9th and 14th was observed with similar behavior on these dates consistent to the behavior the day he was caught. Last week he was presented in court and applied for Accelerated Rehabilitation AR for the theft of $700 of dealer toke money. In the State of Ct you are given one free pass in regards to crimes such as this where if you have no prior criminal history you are eligible for the AR Program.
We have requested a review of the film to see if the toke box on both the 9th and 14th is visible on camera to see if indeed money was in the box and either disturbed or taken by Mr. Newmun. If we can find evidence of this behavior we will proceed to contact the State Police again and ask for this case to again be reviewed for the possibility of him being rearrested for this crime.
This individual has been barred by both the Ct State and Mashantucket Police. I can assure all that this person will never again step foot on Foxwoods property. Also a letter is being drafted by the lead investigator of which will be forwarded to the World Poker Tour WPT. Mr. Newmun has been employed by the WPT and its imperative that they be informed of his actions and subsequent behavior. Further this information will be processed through Griffin Investigators whom will notify all casinos of these actions.
The money has been returned to the Poker Tournament Pool as George, Angela and Eric took care of this on Monday.
Please be assured that we will keep you informed of any updates concerning this despicable behavior.
Thank you / Posted by Billy
https://www.facebook.com/Local2121
Aside from the odd misspelling of the name as "Newmun", this looks fairly real at first glance. They mention the specific three people taking care of the matter ("George, Angela, and Eric"), whereas a fake report would likely not name any, or perhaps just one. It mentioned the authentic-sounding steps of reporting it to Griffin (a casino security firm) and the intricacies of the Connecticut legal system.
So it would seem that Newnum, who was otherwise well-respected and liked throughout poker (despite being a media member and not a player), literally was caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
... or was he?
Notice that it says he was caught "just before Christmas".
Now look at his Twitter:
https://twitter.com/WhoJedi
He was consistently tweeting every day in the weeks before, during, and after Christmas, mostly about Star Wars geek stuff. You would have thought he would have vanished from Twitter for at least a day if this really happened.
The odd thing is that the first extended period of being MIA from Twitter is right now. He hasn't tweeted since January 5, which is unlike him. However, that doesn't correspond with the timeline described in the Facebook post.
It's possible that someone who dislikes him knows that he's gone/unavailable, and is using this opportunity to slam him.
It's also possible that this is true, and he's enough of a sociopath to keep tweeting about Star Wars geekdom as if his whole career isn't crashing down around him, but who knows...
So weird.
Pretty much 3 possibilities here:
1) The Local 2121 page was hacked and this was a prank on Newnum
-or-
2) Someone at Local 2121 was given bad info and is foolishly passing it on without checking
-or-
3) It's true
I really don't know what to say.
Here is Jay Newnum: