imprisoned Venetian guest wins lawsuit

In 2004, David Lockhart, a hotel guest at the Venetian who was a passenger in a car in the Venetian parking garage, was handcuffed, detained, and held against his will by hotel security for the crime of being a passenger in a car in the Venetian parking garage. The Venetian claims that the driver of the car had been involved in a hit & run accident. The Venetian also claimed that Lockhart was trespassing, but considering that Lockhart had pre-paid for his room, that argument was laughed out of court. The court fined the Venetian $200,000 for unlawfully chaining the hotel guest to the floor.

here are the details:

http://www.lvrj.com/news/resort-loses-civil-trial-90726669.html

and

http://www.thebeargrowls.com/?p=666

I know that the old rule of thumb is that there's no such thing as bad publicity, but this is bad publicity. Does the Venetian really want to advertise to the world that it handcuffs its own hotel guests to the floor? Does the Nevada Gaming Control Board frown on this behavior, or is this acceptible?

I'm confused. Why didn't the Venetian's lawyers settle this embarrassing lawsuit before it went to trial? Not only would it have saved money in legal fees, but the Venetian could have avoided media coverage of the trial by including a nondisclosure agreement (gag order) in the $ettlement. We ought to thank the Venetian for publicizing this scandal, but the question remains: did the Venetian's lawyers REALLY believe they could convince a jury that it's okay to handcuff a hotel guest to the floor? Maybe if Lockhart had been accused of card-counting or robbery or assault, the Venetian might have had the jury's sympathy.

My theory is that the hotel's lawyers KNEW they would lose the lawsuit, but Venetian management wouldn't listen to their own attorneys.

The guest may have refused to settle for less than half a million. It does seem that since he denied being in the car at the time of the hit and run that Venetian convicted him without a trial.

Reminds of this story, in which a guest of Tao (the nightclub at the Venetian) was awarded $80,000 for unlawful detainment.

It's a sad world.

Quote: reno

I know that the old rule of thumb is that there's no such thing as bad publicity, but this is bad publicity. Does the Venetian really want to advertise to the world that it handcuffs its own hotel guests to the floor? Does the Nevada Gaming Control Board frown on this behavior, or is this acceptible?

Oh, there's no such thing as bad publicity: Come get falsely arrested at the Venetian and score a million dollar payoff!

Seriously. I wouldn't be surprised if one or two similar stories were to break over the next year. And eventually a guest will get arrested for real.

As to the Gaming Board, as I understand the incident didn't involve gaming in any way.