Court OKs release of Councilwoman Seaman’s crash settlement documents, orders redactions

Las Vegas can release a settlement agreement related to a lawsuit involving Councilwoman Victoria Seaman and her husband, who sued after a 2015 injury crash before she joined the council, but the city has to redact the amounts paid, according to a District Court ruling.

The city of Las Vegas was a co-defendant in the 2017 suit, but the councilwoman and the city maintain that taxpayer money wasn’t used to pay the undisclosed amount.

Seaman — who is vying to become mayor — had argued that she was obligated under the settlement to keep the agreement confidential. Her attorneys filed a motion in District Court for a protection order to block the city from complying to a public records request seeking the documents.

Judge Erika Ballou denied the couple’s motion on Monday, a day before a scheduled hearing.

“Several non -governmental co-defendants may have an interest in keeping the amounts they paid confidential,” Ballou’s three-page ruling said. “Thus, the Court agrees with the City s argument, that the total settlement amounts and the amounts paid by the co-defendants shall be redacted to balance any privacy concerns of the co-defendants, while still providing public access to the public record.”

A city spokesperson on Tuesday said it was waiting for Ballou to sign the order to release the agreement.

Meanwhile, Seaman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the ruling allows the couple to honor their end of the confidentiality agreement.

“I’m grateful that the judge denied the injunction but protected the confidentiality of the lawsuit since it doesn’t involve taxpayers,” she said in a phone interview.

Lou Colagiovanni filed a records request in July.

The city wrote in responding court documents that officials informed Seaman of the request as a “courtesy” before her attorneys filed motions to block the release, and prior to the city being able to comply with the request.

Through one of the records requests, Colagiovanni said he was provided correspondence that included the total sum of the settlement.

He told the Review-Journal Tuesday that Ballou issued her order without having all that information.

“How does that even make sense?” he said about the ordered redactions of who paid what. “That’s kind of the whole point.”

Records show Colagiovanni’s attorney filed a motion to intervene in the case on Sept. 13, but he noted it was too late.

“Had the judge reviewed this information, she wouldn’t had those things redacted,” he added.

The settlement stems from a July 10, 2015, crash when Seaman was a Nevada assemblywoman. Attorneys wrote that Victoria and John Seaman’s vehicle collided with an unmarked section in a road in a construction zone.

Seaman said the crash almost killed them, and that her injuries left her bedridden for weeks, and that she had to undergo multiple surgeries.

The couple sued the city and contractors Las Vegas Paving Corp., Superior Traffic Services Corp., and TAB Contractors Inc. The case was settled in 2019, the year Seaman took her council seat, and the agreement was sealed.

In its court response to the restraining order, the city said it had “tendered its defense” to TAB, meaning that the company would take on Las Vegas’ defense. It said the Seamans did not dismiss Las Vegas from the lawsuit, “including through the resolution of this matter.”

Ballou agreed with the city’s argument that the couple’s confidentiality did not extend to the city “either by the terms of the agreement itself or by statute,” the ruling said.

Seaman had previously described the unearthing of information from a yearslong resolved case as “nasty political tricks by people who support my opponent.”

Ballou’s order, however, said: “The fact that Plaintiff is a current member of the City Council and/or mayoral candidate is irrelevant. Rather, there is legitimate public interest in government action involving elected officials.”

Colagiovanni maintains that he was seeking the documents to explore the settlement structure.

Seaman is running for the mayor’s seat against former U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley.

Colagiovanni said he’s never worked for or been paid by the Berkley campaign.

“I’m not endorsing either candidate,” he said last month. “I’m just a private citizen.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.

Seaman documentsd by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd