LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – The State of Nevada has filed a Nevada Gaming Control Board complaint against a Laughlin casino resort after an employee was reportedly physically assaulted there after being fired.
The complaint was filed on Feb. 24 against the Donald J. Laughlin Gaming Trust, doing business as the Riverside Resort and Casino, by Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford. The complaint seeks unspecified disciplinary action due to the incident.
The complaint said that on or about August 9, 2022, an employee was escorted to the casino’s security office to face allegations of smoking marijuana on the premises while working. That employee denied doing so, and no other employee saw him smoke marijuana.
The complaint notes that he was also not seen doing so on surveillance cameras, and that “no person detected the odor of marijuana on Employee” while at the casino. The human resources department instructed one of the security officers to send the employee home pending an investigation.
The complaint alleges that hotel security did not send the employee home, but instead said that he “could take a drug test or immediately resign.” After a “verbal exchange,” he was told that his employment was terminated.
The employee then said he would like to leave and attempted to exit the security office. According to the complaint, two security officers blocked the door and refused to let him leave.
When he attempted to get past them to reach the door, four security officers allegedly threw him on the ground. While the employee was on the ground, one security officer punched him five times, according to the complaint.
The employee attempted to get away and repeatedly asked for police to be called. The complaint stated that a security officer then called the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and reported that the employee had assaulted the security officers.
Security then put handcuffs on the employee, which he said were too tight, before putting him in a holding cell at the resort. They removed him to search him, finding nothing of interest.
When they returned him to the cell, he resisted and officers reportedly hit his head on a metal cell wall as they put him back in. The complaint said that the employee remained motionless and presumably unconscious on the holding cell floor for approximately 18 minutes.
Security revived him and placed him in a chair until LVMPD officers arrived.
“Upon investigating the matter, Metro officers determined that Employee did not commit a crime,” the complaint noted. “Rather, Metro officers determined that Employee was the potential victim of crimes.”
The complaint said that specifically, he was potentially the victim of battery, coercion with force and false imprisonment. When interviewed by police, one of the security officers admitted that there was “not any reasonable suspicion to test Employee for drug use,” adding that he should have been allowed to leave.
On March 27, 2023, the Justice Court of Laughlin Township issued arrest warrants for all four security officers involved.
The complaint addressed another incident from earlier in 2022 involving security reportedly injuring a patron.
On or around July 5, 2022, security officers allegedly injured a patron while trespassing him from the property for his “perceived interference with a slot drop” by failing to vacate a specific area. The complaint said that the patron was playing on machines that needed to be dropped and he initially questioned his need to leave the area before complying and heading toward an exit.
The complaint alleged that a member of security “mocked Patron’s accent” as he was leaving. The patron stopped to criticize the officers and one of them allegedly pushed him.
The interaction escalated when the patron refused to place his hands behind his back when asked to do so by security. He was then taken to the ground, where he hit his face.
Security handcuffed him and the patron was taken to a hospital, complaining of a leg injury.
The complaint concluded by alleging two counts of unsuitable methods of operation. It asked for relief, including monetary sums for each violation.
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