Lawsuit Highlights Trend of Women Getting Drugged in Vegas Casinos
High roller Dwight Manley is embroiled in a legal battle with MGM, claiming he was drugged at their MGM Grand Mansion high-limit salon back in December 2021.
MGM earlier this month objected to requests to provide other examples of "spiked drink" accusations that may have occurred on the property over the years.
The company responded: “MGM further objects to this request on the grounds that documents being sought are unproportional to the needs of this action and have no bearing on the parties’ respective claims and defenses, particularly since Plaintiff has failed to produce any evidence indicating that he was ‘drugged’ at MGM’s property on December 10, 2021.”
Attorneys for Manley filed documents on Thursday in a federal lawsuit claiming the tranquilizer ketamine was slipped into Manley’s old fashioned cocktail, Vegas beat reporter John L. Smith reports.
Manley, a loyal MGM customer for multiple decades, wound up signing multiple “this-trip-only” credit-limit extensions up to $3.5 million while playing blackjack but claims not to have requested a second or third credit increase in his condition, which drew attention of casino security. He even cut his hand on an ashtray and was bleeding profusely.
The recent filing highlights a trend in Vegas casino visitors claiming to have had their drinks spiked, more often women.
It apparently has been going on for some time. One of the articles presented as part of the filing includes an article from former Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Jane Ann Morrison entitled "Drugging, rape list yet another black eye for Las Vegas resorts". It was published in 2009.
Lu Torres, then the executive director of the Rape Crisis Center, identified nine drug-facilitated rapes in the Las Vegas Valley.
All but one allegedly took place in Las Vegas hotels. Another woman could not remember where the drugging took place. Because date rape drugs are intended to erase short-term memory, their memory loss is natural.
The drugging, they alleged, occurred at the Hard Rock (2), Caesars Palace (2), Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Hooters Hotel and Arizona Charlie's, the only off-Strip site.
Just two years ago, police Ebony Bairfield, who had previously been arrested in an unrelated prostitution-related theft, for drugging and stealing $90,000 from a man at a Strip area hotel and casino.
The unnamed victim claimed to be a high roller table at the Aria casino and pulled $50,000 from his credit card at the cashier and a friend gave him an additional $40,000.
After a couple of drinks at the High Limits bar, the victim said he began to feel “dizzy,” and then things “got blurry.”
As for Manley, he brought the goods. Manley has medical experts that include Dr. Michael Sucher, a veteran physician and expert witness who performed the hair test on the plaintiff that “concluded to a reasonable degree of medical probability that Dwight Manley was poisoned with ketamine in the early afternoon of December 10, 2021, at the MGM Grand Mansion.”
MGM has its own experts. Attorneys Lawrence Semenza III and Katie Cannata have brought forth Dr. Daniel Overbeek. His rebuttal: “Based on the information provided in these reports, my professional opinion remains that there is nothing to indicate that Mr. Manley experienced ketamine intoxication on December 10, 2021. None of the effects witnessed in the videos and described in the reports are specific to ketamine, and there is no evidence based on the behaviors in the video that indicate anything other than alcohol consumption. The hair drug testing does not localize the date of potential exposure and was also positive for ketamine and norketamine in the baseline sample, which also adds additional certainty.”
No matter what becomes of this case, casinos in Vegas and beyond are surely paying attention. If not, they need to be.
If bars can be sued for over serving, casinos can too, and the ketamine might not even matter.
The law firm of Mitch Grissim in Nashville, Tennessee highlights the so-called "dram shop laws".
"According to the logic of the laws, drinking establishments need a legal incentive to cut people off from drinks in order to avoid drunk driver accidents, which often have serious or deadly consequences. These laws also hold establishments responsible if they carelessly over-serve patrons."
Tennessee dram shop laws are stricter than most states. Specifically, a liability claim can only be brought against establishments if they actually sold the alcohol to a person who was “visibly intoxicated” or a minor under age 21. The alcohol sale must also have been the direct cause of the injury.
Casinos in Vegas can't be sued at the moment. Nevada does not have dram shop laws.
Manley cut his hand and spent more money than he intended....but he didn't get behind the wheel of an automobile. He might have. Nevada sees some of the highest rates of drinking and driving in the country each year. It should be noted that Nevada bars and casinos are responsible for injuries caused as a result of having served alcohol to an underage patron.
- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com
