Details sealed as club owner settles sexual harassment lawsuit

Confidentiality has been our foe this week. It’s prevented us from knowing the facts of a settlement in a federal sexual harassment lawsuit against Nine Group nightclub owner Michael Morton.

The confidential settlement in the lawsuit by fired art director Leslie Culler against Morton, his partner Scott DeGraff and company executive Bronson Olimpieri means there will be no public answer to the public allegation that the three men harassed Culler.

No judge or jury will decide who told the truth. What Culler was paid won’t be public.

Was Culler harassed more than 200 times in the eight years she worked for a Nine Group affiliate? Did she have any culpability because of her own behavior? We’ll never know.

The men denied the allegations, which were startling, even in Las Vegas, where the rule is anything goes and nobody tells.

Culler, now 32, alleged Morton spanked her at a company party. On another occasion, she said, he grabbed her breasts while another man held her wrists.

Culler alleged that DeGraff said she should play tennis with him while wearing a skirt and no panties. He also was accused of saying he wanted to snort cocaine off her breasts.

In one of the creepiest claims, Culler alleged Olimpieri, her immediate supervisor, repeatedly asked her to pull her pants down, bend over and spread her butt cheeks and hold it for 30 seconds. She refused.

The lawsuit was filed Dec. 13. A settlement was reached Feb. 24. That’s a fair indication nobody wants to be answering questions under oath about butt cheeks and breast groping in the workplace.

PAYBACK: Nevada Lawyer is reporting that the Clients’ Security Fund paid out $346,161 in 2010 to clients who were victimized by 15 Nevada attorneys.

Not bad, except there were $642,306 in claims and a $50,000 cap on payments. That means some folks don’t get as much as they would like or think they are due. A $500 payout is the smallest on the list, while the largest request was for $319,901 from a client of attorney Ronald Serota who received the maximum of $50,000 allowed.

Every attorney who belongs to the State Bar of Nevada pays dues, and $25 of those dues goes to fund the Clients’ Security Fund.

This year, there was a record number of claims — a 36 percent increase from the average of the four previous years.

The fund has paid out close to $160,000 for clients of Las Vegas attorney Jeanne Winkler, who misappropriated her clients’ money.

In a wrongful death case, a woman hired Douglas Clark. When the case was resolved, he took the money he was due, but he also took the $160,000 that was supposed to go to pay the medical providers. The client had no idea until she applied for a loan modification and found a medical lien on her house.

Lisa McGrane, who oversees the fund, did have one upbeat story to share. She told of a Reno attorney, Scott Tisevich, who stepped up to help dozens of clients whose bankruptcy cases went into limbo because an attorney had medical problems.

PAYBACK DEUX: The Nevada State Contractors Board also has a fund to help homeowners who have been wronged by licensed contractors. Once again, the good contractors pay for the bad through fees to the board.

The cap for licensed contractors (and if you hired an unlicensed contractor, forget about this) is $35,000.

In January, seven people were paid a total of $33,456 out of the contractors board Residential Recovery Fund. For more information, the Southern Nevada office can be reached at 486-1100.

So if you’re stiffed by an attorney or a contractor, maybe you don’t need to go to court. The payouts aren’t big, but as Granny always said, it’s better than a poke in the eye.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.