The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports today that it killed a 1998 story about sexual harassment complaints against casino mogul Steve Wynn, now the subject of renewed complaints. The story was deleted from the newspaper computer system.
Today’s article said the 1998 story was killed after Wynn’s attorney met with the reporter and the newspaper had lie detector tests for employees of Mirage casino who made complaints. Complaints included allegations in a 1998 lawsuit, which made the report of those allegations privileged:
In a lawsuit, a Mirage cocktail server alleged supervisors did not protect women from gamblers who harassed them. She said waitresses were sent to sexually “accommodate” high rollers at the resort’s luxury villas throughout the 1990s.
Another server, upon bragging about her first grandchild in the early 1990s, reportedly was pressured into having sex with Wynn, who said he wanted to experience sex with a grandmother, according to a court filing.
Arkansas angles: In 1998, the newspaper was owned by Little Rock-based Stephens Media. It sold the paper in 2015. The current owner is casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson. The publisher is Craig Moon and the editor, Keith Moyer, who held the same positions at the Arkansas Gazette during its final days of Gannet Corp. ownership in 1991.
Today’s story indicates leaders of the paper at the time don’t recall the episode.
Here’s more on the story from the Washington Post.