Heard in the Hall

In a front page article Saturday on attorney Richard Sprague's efforts to quash a grand jury investigation of his client, Louis DeNaples, we inexcusably forgot to mention that Sprague and his children own a little more than 13 percent of SugarHouse Casino. SugarHouse plans a $550 million casino on Delaware Avenue straddling the Fishtown/Northern Liberties border. DeNaples, a prodigious campaign contributor from Scranton, hopes in the coming weeks to reopen the once-famous Mt. Airy Lodge in the Poconos as the state's first standalone slots parlor.

Until recently, Sprague also represented the chief architect of the 2004 law that legalized slots in Pennsylvania, State Sen. Vincent Fumo, as Fumo tries to fight off a federal corruption investigation. Fumo told a judge recently he would find a new lawyer due to unresolvable conflicts with Sprague, whose firm has represented clients who could be called as witnesses in Fumo's case.

In May, when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard appeals on the Gaming Control Board's licensing decisions, Sprague was there for two clients -- DeNaples' Mount Airy Lodge project, and for SugarHouse and himself. Even he and the justices seemed confused at one point.

One thing was clear -- the protean superlawyer enjoys unparallelled respect on the Supreme Court. While other lawyers bowed down to the justices, Sprague openly debated with them, and at times it was unclear whose court we were in -- Sprague's or Chief Justice Ralph Cappy's.

Now that is juice.