LAS VEGAS — When Las Vegas attorney Robert Eglet announced the settlement in the lawsuits stemming from the Las Vegas Massacre on Thursday, I almost thought I was listening to one of the attorneys from MGM Resorts International(MGMRI), the owners of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and the Las Vegas Village grounds, the site of the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival.
I was shocked and sickened as I heard Eglet make continual comments praising MGMRI with little mention of the families of the 58 who were killed or the more than 450 who survived after being wounded.
Since the Massacre, I have authored over 135 articles for the Baltimore Post-Examiner on this tragedy, more than any other single journalist in the country. I broke one story after another, most if not all of which went ignored by the media.
I have spoken to survivors and family members of those who were killed whose support gave me the strength to keep investigating.
I could not have written many of the stories that I did without the law enforcement sources I had, the employees of MGMRI who steered me in the right direction and others who provided information.
I have to give credit to the man who identifies himself only as Weg Oag. This gentleman compiled every single document that was ordered released by the courts as well as all the LVMPD police body camera footage and placed them all on his website for public view, at no charge. Many times, attorneys would call me asking where they could find this particular video or that, and I referred them to the website. His work greatly assisted my research. Job well-done sir.
That being said there is still much more that we do not know.
The lawsuits may be over however the pursuit of the truth will go on to uncover what is being held back from the public. It’s not over by any stretch of the imagination.
Eglet praises MGMRI
The following are excerpts from Eglet’s press conference on October 3:
Eglet: MGM’s stated goal from the outset of this litigation was to resolve these matters so the community, the victims and their families can move forward in the healing process and today’s announcement is a step forward in that direction and proof in my mind that MGM meant what they said at the outset of this litigation that their desire was to resolve this thing globally.
Eglet: We at MGM truly believe that this settlement will provide fair compensation for thousands of victims and their families. This has been a long process but we at MGM believe this conclusion is the best for our community, the company, and the victims.
Eglet: I would like to make clear that this settlement is not an admission of liability by MGM by any stretch of the imagination.
Eglet: I would like to say a few words about MGM. I have been practicing law right now for 32 years and I was thinking last night that I know I have sued at least hundreds and probably over a thousand companies and corporations during my career for various different negligence or product liability cases. In that time frame, this is the first time I ever had the ability and the desire to say something good about the defendant in this case. I want to tell you that in my view what MGM has done here through this process and through this meditation represents the highest standard of corporate citizenship that I have ever seen in my career. They are quite frankly a shining example of what corporations can do in America in that they can do well for their shareholders as well as do well for the community and MGM has proved that in this case. In my view, they have set the bar for corporate citizenship around the country and as a lifelong Nevadan, I cannot tell you how proud I am that MGM is a Nevada company here in Nevada. We all know that they are the largest employer in our state. They have proved here, and they have proved many times before that they are an important member of our community and they genuinely care about Las Vegas and Nevada as a whole and what they had done here through this settlement was quite frankly astonishing in my view. You just don’t see normally this type of corporate behavior in America very often.
Eglet: I would be remiss if I didn’t speak about MGM’s employees in the broader Las Vegas community here. As MGM’s CEO Jim Murren has said on multiple occasions MGM has the best employees in the business surrounded by one of the best communities in the world, Las Vegas. While the past two years have been challenging, MGM employees have supported each other, and the broader community has been inspired. The trust, loyalty, and dedication that MGM’s valued employees have shown to their great company has allowed them to unite and do what is right as they move forward, and we at the MGM hope this agreement will allow the victims, first responders, and the entire community to look forward to the future and continue on a path forward toward healing.
Eglet: This mediation went on just short of eight months, Jim Murren and John McManus, their general counsel, and the MGM’s team and lawyers were exceptional. They were professional throughout this entire process and I cannot say enough good things about them, I really can’t and that is an unusual position for me to be in, but I cherish it today because it’s all true.
Eglet: So, again I want to commend MGM. I want to say to you that I’m not just saying this because this case settled, and they’ve agreed to settle this case. I’m saying this because of the way they were throughout this mediation. It became very clear to me within just a few weeks of this mediation that MGM’s desire was to help or community and help these victims and I’m very proud of what they’ve done here today.
Eglet: Last year I was the loudest voice in the country saying negative things about MGM when they sued a number of the victims in this case. MGM at that time kept saying to the press we just want to figure out a way to get all these cases in one venue so we can work toward resolution of the litigation. I didn’t believe them, I said I don’t believe that’s true, I said that in press conferences. I was wrong, I was wrong, and they proved that to me in the first several weeks of this mediation, it became very clear that was their intention. Now, we didn’t agree on the procedural methods they were going about and that’s why the mediation was so successful because we were able to agree on the right, the best procedure to get this case resolved. But after going through eight months of this mediation with MGM, I do not doubt their good intention at this time.
Eglet: I will tell you; they have made me the most loyal customer they will ever have. If I have family or friends in town, I’m putting them up in an MGM property every time now because they have to be shown the most outstanding corporate citizenship I have ever witnessed, and I think all of us in this case have ever witnessed in our careers.
Eglet: I just want to say that I’m very impressed with MGM here, really am.
Eglet sang a different tune in April 2018 when he appeared on The Young Turks and was interviewed by Cenk Uygur and slammed MGMRI:
Eglet: It was a massacre, quite frankly.
Uygur: What else went wrong that night?
EgIet: It was a calamity of errors that night. First of all Las Vegas, the local law enforcement, as well as the casinos, have been getting notices from Homeland Security since the early part of the year, last year, 2017, that Las Vegas was, all of the Internet, was a soft target, there was the probability, they thought there was at least a strong possibility that there could be a terrorist attack of some kind there because it was soft target. Unfortunately, the MGM didn’t prepare at all, in any of their hotels or resorts there.
Well, you’ve got large crowds of people, you know walking up and down the street at any time, you got high buildings that you know look over these crowds of people, you’ve got outdoor concert venues, and this wasn’t the only outdoor concert venue in Las Vegas. There are multiple outdoor concert venues. So, there’s a lot of places where people can be. You know this concert venue is right on the Strip, it would be just as easy for someone to drive a semi-truck through this makeshift chain link fence they put up around the property with explosives on it, as there was shooter so, there was lots of things that the MGM could have done. There are preparations, things the MGM could have done. This concert venue was so inappropriate, so insecure. There wasn’t proper markings for the exits, there was no plan of evacuation, in case any sort of attack of any sort occurred. There was no announcement that occurred when this happened. No one knew what to do, it was pandemonium there.
When you look at the other things they do with security, when MGM took over a lot of these properties and combined all the resources, you know these corporations come in they buy a bunch of different properties and they’ll combine their resources, they consolidate the security and housekeeping to cut costs, it raises their profits. One of the things we know they did, they significantly reduced their armed security, from armed security to unarmed security. Why did they do that? Well, armed security is $18.00 an hour in Nevada, unarmed security is $13.00 an hour, so that’s going to increase your profits, just that one thing.
We know there was significant errors made by MGM. They didn’t provide adequate security for either the venue or for this hotel to make sure they didn’t have a customer or anyone coming onto this property with firearms, much less, more than two dozen militarized type firearms. I mean they have signs at his hotel, Mandalay Bay, that say firearms are not permitted on these premises, and yet they take no steps to make sure that they don’t have patrons coming onto their premises with firearms. That’s the duty they have.
Closing comments
I have said repeatedly throughout the past two years that MGMRI would settle out of court and that these lawsuits would never see the light of day in front of a civil jury. I was proven correct.
Why was I so sure?
Because no matter whatever MGMRI states publicly, the Las Vegas Massacre was entirely foreseeable and preventable, I proved that in many of my articles.
Corporate negligence, complacency, incompetence, and greed resulted in the death of 58 people and the wounding and injuring of hundreds of others.
As for the monetary settlement. MGMRI got off easy. Their insurance carriers will absorb just about all of the purported payout, about $750 million. MGMRI will pick up the additional $50 million if it reaches the $800 million.
There are about 4,400 total plaintiffs. How much they each will receive remains to be seen.
So, in actuality, MGMRI pays nothing but maybe higher insurance premiums.
The Las Vegas Massacre should never have happened.
Feature photo: Robert Eglet press conference October 3 2019 (Screenshot)
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