LOCATION: Nevada
Hey Reddit, I’m looking for some advice after a really messed up situation my boyfriend went through while staying at a hotel in Vegas. Here’s the background:
He was flying in for a work conference and since he arrived a day early due to flight scheduling, he booked himself a very cheap room ($60) just to crash for the night. Around 3 AM, after playing blackjack downstairs, he went back up to his room to take a bath. Next thing he knows, six hotel security guards burst in without knocking. They claim there’s been a water leak and that he’s caused damage to the property. They demand he leaves immediately.
He’s totally naked, confused, and tries to explain he’s done nothing wrong, but they handcuff him and drag him out of the room through the casino, only allowing him a towel to cover up. They take him to a “hotel jail” room and say he’ll have to pay $26,000 for damages or face criminal charges. He asks them to call the cops immediately and get a lawyer, but they ignore him and was handcuffed for over three hours while naked.
When the cops finally show up after he kept asking for them, they immediately see how wrong the situation is. They uncuff him and say everything is on bodycam. The cop’s footage shows that there was no damage in the room, the tub was half empty, the carpet was dry, and the hallway was wet, but not his room.
His work laptop was wet but he says he didn’t take it out and suspects someone put it in the bathtub and took it back out and placed it on the bed. His wrist are scraped and bruised.
The hotel still charged his Amex for $26,000 and banned him from all MGM properties. He was kicked out at 7 AM, had no phone battery, and had to walk around for over an hour to find another hotel. On top of all this, he had a few hundred dollars from blackjack winnings in his jeans pocket, but when he got back to his room, it had been replaced with 10 10 dollar Hong Kong bills.
Anyways; we’ve contacted a few lawyers to try to see if we could pursue legal action. This experience has been very traumatic for him and he’s missed his work conference because the conference was also in an MGM hotel. A few lawyers mentioned they weren’t going to take the case; is this because it’s not strong enough?
Or is it because it’s hopeless to bring a lawsuit to MGM? Would love some advice on the type of lawyer best to consult; as some lawyers are not attack lawyers but defense.
A lot of the lawyers are also free (only paid when settlement is reached) is it because it’s a lost case? Would love a recommendation also.
Any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance!
TL;DR: My boyfriend was wrongfully detained, handcuffed naked, and charged $26K for damage by hotel security at an MGM hotel in Vegas. He had money stolen, was banned, and missed his conference. Talked to three lawyers and they aren’t taking the case, looking for advice on whether it’s worth pursuing or what type of lawyer to consult.
EDIT FOR INFO: some people are confused as to why he’s awake or needed a 60$ hotel room.
He was flying to Vegas from Asia where we were visiting my family, his flight had to be moved due to scheduling problems and so he landed on Monday instead of originally Tuesday. His work only booked him hotel rooms starting Tuesday so he wanted to save money because we spent 1.6k on rescheduling the flight.
He was awake at 3am (which tbh is a dumb idea) because the conference actually starts on Wednesday and on Tuesday he only needed to be up by noon to help set up the booth. Also jet lag.
I have also called the hotel and basically reverse engineered everything to where they confirmed as much as they could about what happened. I’m the biggest skeptic and when I heard this I was like wtf but yeah.