Casino security pictures ID man sought in burglary on casino property

CRIME NEWS FOR SOUTH MISSISSIPPI

February 17, 2014

 

Tran

 

Casino security pictures ID man sought in burglary

 BILOXI -- Security pictures of an auto burglary in the IP Casino parking lot led to tips that helped identify Kevin Van Tran as the suspect, police said.

The vehicle's owner reported the inside of his car had been ransacked Sept. 18 and several items were stolen. Surveillance video showed Tran, a regular at the casino, burglarize the car and leave in a different vehicle, police Sgt. Steve Schlicht said.

Police had released a picture and information asking the public for help. Police arrested Tran, 22, of D'Iberville, on Saturday. He was held at the Harrison County jail on a $10,000 bond set by Justice Court Judge Albert Fountain.

Anyone with information about the case or other crimes in Biloxi is asked to call police dispatchers at 392-0641 or investigators at 435-6112.
 -- Robin Fitzgerald  http://www.sunherald.com/2014/02/17/5346583/crime-news-for-south-mississippi.html  

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Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2014/02/17/5346583/crime-news-for-south-mississippi.html#storylink=cpy

 

Boyd Gaming seeks to have $75M death lawsuit dismissed

Boyd Gaming seeks to have $75M death lawsuit dismissed against IP Casino (updated)

 Published: Saturday, September 22, 2012
 

 

(Joshua Dahl/Correspondent) The IP Casino Resort Spa is seen in this 2011 file photo.

JACKSON, Mississippi --- A gambling company has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that claims a Mississippi casino served a heavily medicated man so many free drinks that he collapsed in the bathroom of his hotel room and died.

The lawsuit against IP Casino Resort and Spa in Biloxi was filed in U.S. District Court in Gulfport in July and seeks damages of $75 million. The suit claims casino workers ignored pleas from Bryan Lee Glenn's relatives in JACKSON, Mississippi --- A gambling company has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that claims a Mississippi casino served a heavily medicated man so many free drinks that he collapsed in the bathroom of his hotel room and died.

The lawsuit against IP Casino Resort and Spa in Biloxi was filed in U.S. District Court in Gulfport in July and seeks damages of $75 million. The suit claims casino workers ignored pleas from Bryan Lee Glenn's relatives in August 2009 and continued serving him free drinks well after he was visibly intoxicated.

The casino, formerly known as Imperial Palace, changed hands after Glenn's death. Boyd Gaming bought the property in 2011.

Boyd Gaming argues in court filings this week that "Mississippi law is abundantly clear that one injured as a result of his on voluntary intoxication has no viable claim against a casino which served him alcohol."

Michael Holleman, lawyer for Glenn's relatives, didn't respond to a message seeking comment on the filing.

Mississippi has a "dram shop" law that says businesses can be held liable if they serve alcohol to someone who is drunk and that person later injures or kills someone else. But Boyd Gaming sites a 1986 case, Cuevas v. Royal D'Iberville Hotel, in which the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled a business is not liable when a person voluntarily drinks "and then by reason of his inebriated condition, injures himself."

In the 1986 case, a woman said the hotel lounge served her alcohol after she was visibly drunk, a factor that contributed to her fall over a railing to the hotel lobby floor 30 feet below. She was seriously injured.

In the lawsuit against Boyd Gaming, Glenn's relatives claim they pleaded with casino employees to cut him off from alcohol because he was on medication for physical and mental ailments.

Glenn, 30, had taken prescription painkillers as well as anti-psychotic medications in the three weeks before his death, the lawsuit said. He was being treated for physical injuries as well as psychosis and hallucinations. Glenn had suffered a traumatic brain injury in a 2004 four-wheeler accident and back injuries in a 2007 car wreck.

Glenn and his mother and brother lived in coastal Long Beach, Miss., but lost everything to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and eventually settled in Virginia. They returned to Mississippi with a friend in August 2009 to pick up Glenn's check from a settlement from a previous lawsuit and to look for a place to live. They were staying at the IP resort.

Glenn picked up the $15,000 check on the morning of Aug. 6, 2009, and the group planned to use some of the money on a deposit for a place to live. But once back at the resort, Glenn began betting up to $1,000 a hand on blackjack and ordering two drinks at a time. The suit says a dealer, pit boss, waitress and security guard were among those who refused to intervene after Glenn was drunk and his family begged the casino to stop serving him.

Glenn's relatives left the casino to take someone home. When they returned, his brother, mother and a friend found him in his hotel bathroom at the resort. Glenn's friend, trained as an emergency medical technician, tried to revive him but he was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2012/09/boyd_gaming_seeks_to_have_75_d.html

Las Vegas: Casino Thuggery by Casinos

Lawsuits pile up as alleged casino assaults continue
Critics of casino security say a culture of thuggery exists

By Liz Benston

In a downtown Las Vegas office, CD cases are stacked haphazardly, like an exhaustive, meticulously labeled music collection. These aren’t albums but rather, casino surveillance footage showing altercations between customers and casino security.

This is a town where people are wary of making enemies of casinos, yet Bob Nersesian has made a career out of suing casinos and their security for assault and battery on behalf of customers. Financing his trade is a mother lode of video captured on DVD — evidence casinos are required to keep in the wake of pending lawsuits.

VIDEO on link

Business in the downturn has been good for Nersesian, who chooses cases believed to have damaging video evidence. He and law partner Thea Sankiewicz have about 50 such cases in progress at any one time and file a new lawsuit about once every two weeks. That’s pretty much the same as a decade ago, before growing publicity about such cases and their costs for casinos.

“I get about three calls a day on this,” he said. “I’m so busy I’m turning people away.”

Most of Nersesian’s cases are settled confidentially with casinos. The few that go to trial almost always end badly for casinos that can be found liable for assault, battery and unlawful detention, with judgments in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In one case, a jury years ago found a casino in the clear, he said.

His track record has prompted invitations to casino conferences, where he has advised managers on how to avoid such lawsuits.

The DVDs show a darker side of Las Vegas’ glamorous resorts little known outside courtrooms and a small circle of security experts.

Near the top of the pile is a video starring Angelo Stamis, owner of Jerry’s Nugget, who approaches a gambler, demands ID and tells the customer to leave. The video shows the gambler leaving, but not before swearing at Stamis, who then grabs the gambler, Thomas Robertson, by the arm while a guard handcuffs him. North Las Vegas police arrested Robertson for supposedly refusing to leave.

North Las Vegas Municipal Court dropped the charges in November, saying Robertson had committed no crime and the casino had no right to evict him.

Robertson’s lawsuit against the casino is pending. Jerry’s Nugget representatives couldn’t be reached for comment.

Surveillance footage from other casinos shows customers being nabbed and detained by security guards in offices where the patrons are threatened with arrest should they return to the casino. Some DVDs are no longer than a few minutes, while others contain several hours of footage.

It’s a far cry from the days casino bosses were known to beat undesirables and toss them in the street — or dump them in the desert.

Still, they hint at an earlier time when force was the preferred method for dealing with unwanted customers.

Nersesian and other critics of casino security call it a culture of thuggery and intimidation by poorly trained security guards. Police are inclined to believe that a handcuffed patron has committed a crime rather than suspect the customer was improperly arrested, they say.

“This is a pattern of behavior that’s been going on for more than 25 years,” Nersesian said. “We know better, as Americans, not to take someone and detain them in a room.”

Nevada law defines battery a “any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another” and assault as “unlawfully attempting to use physical force against another person” or “intentionally placing another person in reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily harm.” Both are misdemeanors, although battery resulting in “substantial bodily harm” is a felony that carries a minimum prison term of one year. False imprisonment, “confinement or detention without sufficient legal authority,” is a gross misdemeanor.

Critics fault casinos for failing to adequately train security guards in the kind of verbal judo police officers use to talk to suspects in tense situations. Instead, they say, security guards too frequently seize unruly or unwanted customers rather than let them leave the premises or immediately call police to have patrons arrested.

The DVD footage shows security officers obtaining ID from handcuffed customers and taking pictures of them for their own records. Some, like Robertson, aren’t criminals or under suspicion for crimes but rather, skilled gamblers known to win money from the casino. Casinos are entitled to evict unwanted customers and that, notwithstanding the contrarian decision by the North Las Vegas court, Nevada law entitles them to arrest those who violate trespass warnings.

Caesars Entertainment spokesman Gary Thompson said the company has a right to refuse service by escorting a patron out of the casino. The company also has a right to detain someone if it has reason to believe that illegal activity, such as cheating a game, has occurred, he added.

In April, Imperial Palace was found liable for assault, battery and false imprisonment in its handling of a gambler who had complained about a faulty slot machine, resulting in a $250,000 judgment against the casino. The security chief, who no longer works there, had previously been found liable in an assault case stemming from a 2001 incident at the New Frontier that resulted in a judgment of $110,000 against that casino. Thompson declined to comment on the suit.

Lawsuits can be costly and time consuming, Thompson said.

“We want to ensure that our guests have a good time in a safe environment. If we see any behavior that’s observed or reported that’s offensive to guests or unsafe for employees or guests, we have a responsibility to intervene.”

The company’s security forces receive periodic training to ensure they are doing their jobs properly, he said.

One expert witness who has served plaintiffs and defendants in casino assault cases says training programs for casino security guards are woefully lacking in Las Vegas.

“You don’t see these kinds of cases in places like Tunica and Biloxi (Mississippi). Most are in Nevada and Atlantic City and that says something — it says that something’s wrong,” said Fred Del Marva, an Arizona-based security instructor and private investigator.

Employee manuals for security differ little from casino to casino as they tend to be generically written, without specific examples on how to handle, say, a cursing gambler, Del Marva said.

“(Security) really doesn’t have the patience to take verbal abuse from someone he’s asking to leave. Rather than providing the higher standard of care that’s required when you’re dealing with a guy who is drunk or belligerent, they act on adrenaline and treat customers like thugs,” he said.

Security guards have no more right to arrest a customer than any other citizen in that they can make an arrest if they see a crime occurring. Most assault cases aren’t about criminal activity, but rather, are a display of force by security guards who view themselves as authority figures with pseudo-police powers, he said.

“Instead of saying, ‘Will you follow me to the exit? No? Fine, I’ll call (the police),’ they want to show their authority.”

Mike Bryant, president of the Las Vegas Security Chiefs Association and director of security at South Point, declined to comment on casino security policies in general, saying each casino follows its own procedures.

Casinos aren’t putting their guards through sensitivity training, casino consultant Bill Zender said.

As a casino manager in the 1990s, Zender warned security of grabbing unwanted gamblers and hauling them forcibly out of the casino.

“You can’t put your hands on people or hold people for no reason, which is a form of kidnapping,” he said. “If he says ‘I’m leaving’ you can’t drag him in and take his picture.”

Nevada regulators say they have not witnessed a rash of wrongful behavior that would warrant fines or, worse yet, suspended casino licenses.

“If a security guard who has had a bad day hauls off and hits someone, it’s hard to hold the casino accountable,” Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli said. “We would look at that incident in context, like whether they fired the guy and whether this was one bad guard or a problem department. If there’s a pattern at a casino where they are hiring people without background checks or are tolerating the wrong behavior, that’s a problem and we want to know about it.”

The Control Board has recently cracked down on nightclubs for allowing reckless behavior, including roughing up customers. Two clubs in particular terminated several security guards and trained others in response to the board’s concerns, Lipparelli said, declining to name the clubs.

Metro Police is reluctant to file police reports against casino security for assault and battery, preferring to view such crimes as civil disputes between casinos and their customers, Nersesian said.

Metro spokeswoman Laura Meltzer said police follow simple protocol when dealing with any potential victim — take a report, pass the case on to an investigator and rely on the victim to press charges and follow up with detectives. Some victims don’t follow up, or there may be a lack of convincing evidence, she said.

“We’re not going to deny someone a report who has been the victim of a crime,” she said. A victim may be told to return after sobering up, or the incident may simply not meet the definition of a crime, she added.

Metro isn’t aware of a pattern of security abuses in Las Vegas casinos, although there are many kinds of casino requests for law enforcement that tracking the incidents in which patrons complain of battery is difficult, Meltzer said.

Claims of assault by security guards are common in entertainment districts across the country known for their party scene and free-flowing booze, said Bill Sousa, a UNLV criminal justice professor.

In higher risk tourist zones such as Las Vegas, police should be able to help security guards avoid altercations as part of the overall goal of any law enforcement agency to lower crime statistics, he said.

Critics cite a too-close relationship between police and casino security for the lack of criminal charges against guards.

Police “seem to fail to do their own investigations...they kind of act as an arm of casino security,” said Allen Lichtenstein, American Civil Liberties Union Nevada counsel.

Del Marva said “they don’t want problems with the casinos, with which they all have connections. The casinos are going to do what they’re going to do without police interference.”

Things were different for Imperial Palace gambler Chad Johnson. The day after his 2008 altercation with security, Johnson went to Metro to show police his bruised body. Police referred the case to the district attorney, which filed a misdemeanor battery charge against the security manager. The case against the manager, who paid $351 in restitution and attended an anger management course, was dismissed in 2009. It’s the first of more than 100 assault cases Nersesian has handled since 1995 to yield criminal charges against a casino employee.

About two dozen of those cases have resulted in jury verdicts against casinos for illegal assault or arrest.

“Not once have I seen police or gaming (regulators) walk into a scene with security and say, ‘Thanks for calling us, but you guys messed up,’ ” Nersesian said. “It’s their responsibility to investigate unsuitable practices but apparently it’s not an unsuitable practice to beat on people.”

“We don’t want our licensees out there assaulting patrons,” said David Salas, deputy chief of the Control Board’s enforcement division. “There’s anecdotal evidence that it occurs. But I would refute that it’s a widespread problem.”

Cheating Casinos

Calif. woman pleads guilty to attempting to cheat 29 casinos, including two in Tunica

WASHINGTON — A California woman pleaded guilty today in San Diego to conspiring with others to cheat 29 casinos, including two in Tunica and three others elsewhere in Mississippi, with a card-counting scheme.

Van Thu Tran, 45, pleaded guilty and could face 20 years in prison when sentenced in May. An investigation into the casino-cheating conspiracy dating back to 2007 has resulted in 42 defendants pleading guilty.

The Justice Department announced the plea this afternoon and described the elaborate method used to obtain up to $7 million:

“(The conspirators allegedly) executed a ‘false shuffle’ cheating scheme at casinos in the United States and Canada during blackjack and mini-baccarat games. The indictments allege that members of the criminal organization bribed casino card dealers and supervisors to perform false shuffles during card games, thereby creating ‘slugs’ or groups of unshuffled cards.

“The indictments also allege that after tracking the order of cards dealt in a card game, a member of the organization would signal to the card dealer to perform a ‘false shuffle,’ and members of the group would then bet on the known order of cards when the slug appeared on the table. By doing so, members of the conspiracy repeatedly won thousands of dollars during card games, including winning several hundred thousand dollars on one occasion.”

Among the casinos targeted were Gold Strike Casino and Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, the Beau Rivage and Imperial Palace casinos in Biloxi and the Golden Moon Casino in Choctaw, Miss. FBI field offices around the country, as well as local police, the IRS and the Mississippi Gaming Commission were among the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation.