Second massage therapist files lawsuit against Steve Wynn
Another massage therapist lodged a civil complaint against casino developer Steve Wynn and his former company’s board on Thursday.
The 36-year-old woman’s lawsuit, remarkably similar to the first, was filed just a day after another masseuse made similar allegations of sexual harassment against the disgraced Wynn.
In Thursday’s complaint, the woman alleged that Wynn started booking massages with her in 2006 and began “mentally and emotionally grooming (her) for his true intentions.”
A day earlier, the same Las Vegas law firm, Atkinson Watkins & Hoffman, filed a complaint on behalf of a 49-year-old woman whose encounters with the billionaire began in 2011.
With both women, each identified only as “Jane Doe,” Wynn would lock his office door and keep it guarded by security and dogs he said would attack on command, the lawsuit said.
In the most recent complaint, the woman alleged that Wynn forced her to perform sexual acts more than 50 times in about three years, and handed her a $400 “tip” after each encounter.
She “feared going to work in apprehension of Wynn’s advances and demands,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff reasonably believed that other massage therapists were aware that she was regularly booked by Wynn, and suspected that they were aware what Wynn was demanding of her. Plaintiff reasonably feared how she would be treated by other massage therapists during her employment as a result of Wynn’s actions.”
She alleges that she received “disparate treatment” from her colleagues that “continues to this day.”
The older woman’s complaint alleged that Wynn forced her to perform sex acts about a dozen times in a year, and he made “unwanted advances,” placing his hands in her private areas. He gave her $1,000 after each massage, telling her never to speak of his demands.
The woman, a mother, also alleged that Wynn started to take advantage of her once he learned she needed to keep her job in order to provide for her children.
Both women said they repeatedly objected to Wynn’s unwanted propositions.
Wynn, accused of demanding sexual favors from female employees over the past three decades, has denied any wrongdoing and blamed his ex-wife for leading a campaign that resulted in an “avalanche of negative publicity” and, ultimately, his resignation as Wynn Resorts chairman and CEO on Feb. 6.
Officials with the resort company and a spokesman for Wynn have declined to comment on the lawsuits.
In each lawsuit, the allegations are packed in 12-page documents that include counts of assault, battery, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting from the company’s board of directors, tortious breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, concert of action and civil conspiracy.
The complaints cite a wave of media reports regarding sexual harassment allegations against Wynn, prompted by a Wall Street Journal investigation published last month.
Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.
Jane Doe Complain in Steve Wynn Case by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd