Wynn Resorts to settle sexual harassment inaction claim from 9 female salon workers
Sep 7, 2023, 5:29 PM
FILE - The Wynn Las Vegas resort stands over the Las Vegas strip, July 26, 2023, in Las Vegas. According to court documents filed Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023, Wynn Resorts and nine unnamed women have told a federal judge that they're settling a lawsuit alleging the casino company failed to investigate allegations that female employees had been sexually harassed by former company CEO Steve Wynn. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Ty ONeil, File)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Wynn Resorts and nine unnamed women are settling a lawsuit alleging the casino company failed to investigate allegations that female employees were sexually harassed by former company CEO Steve Wynn, according to a court document.
Attorneys for Wynn Resorts and the women who worked as manicurists and makeup artists filed the document Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The women accused company officials of being aware and failing to act on allegations of misconduct before Steve Wynn resigned in February 2018. He was not a named a defendant in the case.
Wynn, now 81 and living in Florida, has paid record monetary fines to gambling regulators but consistently has denied sexual misconduct allegations in multiple courts.
The plaintiffs are identified in the lawsuit only as Judy Doe No. 1 through Judy Doe No. 9. Their attorneys, led by Kathleen England and Jason Maier, did not respond Thursday to emails from The Associated Press.
Wynn Resorts spokesman Michael Weaver declined to comment.
Steve Wynn’s lawyers in Las Vegas, Colby Williams and Donald Campbell, did not respond Thursday to an email from AP requesting comment.
The settlement was first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro scheduled a Nov. 6 court date to dismiss the case to allow time for completion of “the settlement process, including the issuance of settlement fund,” according to the court filing.
The lawsuit was filed in September 2019 in Nevada state court and moved in October 2019 to U.S. District Court. It was dismissed in July 2020 by a federal judge in Las Vegas who faulted it for using pseudonyms and not specifying individual harassment claims.
The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals revived it in November 2021, ruling the nine women could remain anonymous and amend their complaint to add individual harassment allegations.
Steve Wynn resigned from his corporate positions after the Wall Street Journal published allegations by several women that he sexually harassed or assaulted them at his hotels. He divested company shares, quit the corporate board and resigned as finance chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Wynn in July agreed to end a yearslong battle with the Nevada Gaming Commission by paying a $10 million fine and cutting ties to the casino industry he helped shape in Las Vegas, where he developed luxury properties including the Golden Nugget, Mirage and Bellagio. He also developed the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, New Jersey; Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi; and Wynn Macau in China.
His former company, Wynn Resorts Ltd., paid the commission $20 million in February 2019 for failing to investigate the sexual misconduct claims made against him.
Massachusetts gambling regulators fined Wynn Resorts another $35 million and new company chief executive Matthew Maddox $500,000 for failing to disclose when applying for a license for the Encore Boston Harbor resort that there had been sexual misconduct allegations against Steve Wynn.
Wynn Resorts agreed in November 2019 to accept $20 million in damages from Steve Wynn and $21 million more from insurance carriers on behalf of current and former employees of Wynn Resorts to settle shareholder lawsuits accusing company directors of failing to disclose misconduct allegations.
