A retired Kansas Highway Patrol trooper has been sentenced to a year of federal probation for lying to the FBI during an investigation of illegal gambling in Wichita.
53-year-old Michael Frederiksen of Derby was convicted by a jury last May on one count of making false statements to FBI investigators. Prosecutors said Frederiksen was filmed taking part in an illegal cash poker game in Wichita in 2014, when he was still a KHP trooper. In February, 2017 he was interviewed by FBI agents who were looking into illegal gambling operations in Wichita. Prosecutors said Frederiksen made statements downplaying his involvement in illegal poker and his relationship with the operator of the poker game.
The FBI had a video of Frederiksen playing in a poker game held in February, 2014 at an address in the Old Town district of Wichita. The site was equipped with poker tables, a cabinet for valuables and poker chips, video surveillance equipment, liquor and snacks. An undercover investigator was at the game posing as a gambler, and at one point he tried to use his phone to take photos. The men running the game took him aside and told him he was making other players nervous. They allowed the undercover officer to continue playing, but they moved the game to other locations after that night.
