A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by nine female employees of Wynn Resorts who claim the company did nothing to protect them from sexual harassment by Steve Wynn.
The women, manicurists and makeup artists at Wynn Las Vegas identified by their attorneys as “Judy Doe No. 1” through “Judy Doe No. 9,” accused Wynn Resorts and Wynn Las Vegas of fostering a hostile work environment. They alleged the defendants were aware of misconduct by Wynn towards female employees but did not investigate it and instead covered it up.
They said that sought to remain anonymous out of fear of legal retaliation by the company and fear of being ostracized at work. They also claimed that sensitive details contained in the court action would disrupt their lives if made public.
In voiding the suit, District Judge James C. Mahan agreed with another judge’s earlier ruling that the women did not sufficiently justify their need to file the suit anonymously.
He also ruled that the women did not sufficiently make their case in the complaint but used “generalized and vague statements without individualized factual support for their allegations.”
He did, however, dismiss the suit without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled.
Wynn, 78, resigned in February 2018 as chairman and chief executive of Wynn Resorts and later sold off his financial interest in the company after explosive testimony published in The Wall Street Journal claimed that for years the tycoon had preyed on his female employees for sexual favors.
Wynn, who was not named in the lawsuit, has repeatedly denied any misconduct, but his departure triggered investigations by regulators in Nevada and Massachusetts and led to the resignation of several of Wynn Resorts’ high-level executives and a purging of the board of directors of Wynn’s close associates.
The Nevada investigation concluded last year by finding the company did not act on numerous complaints lodged over the years by Wynn’s reputed victims and instead engaged in a cover-up which extended to a secret $7 million payoff the tycoon made to a former Wynn Las Vegas manicurist he allegedly made pregnant. The company was fined a record $20 million.
In Massachusetts the company was fined $35 million for failing to disclose the complaints, the $7 million payment along with them, during its licensing for a multibillion-dollar resort that opened last year outside Boston.
