Ex-host cannot distribute Palms guest information

A Las Vegas casino has obtained a court order banning a former employee from distributing confidential files about thousands of high-rolling gamblers and guests that she is accused of misappropriating by emailing from work to her home.

The fired host at the Palms, Jessica Hemingway, told a judge she hadn't distributed the information that she sent to her personal computer so she could do her work at home.

"I was using it for the Palms, to market people to come to the Palms," Hemingway said Friday minutes before Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez issued a permanent injunction ordering Hemingway and her fiance not to distribute the information.

A lawsuit filed July 17 by the resort against Hemingway alleges she misappropriated trade secrets.

Hemingway accused casino officials of firing her on July 9, two days after she filed a complaint with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission alleging that she had been sexually harassed by a male supervisor.

Hemingway and fiance Scott Yelton appeared before the judge without a lawyer. They did not contest an order to give casino officials access to her computer, but they rejected a proposed agreement with Palms attorneys that would include dropping the sexual harassment claim.

Yelton, 32, said he and Hemingway, 31, wanted to clear her name.

The casino believes more than 50,000 files relating to thousands of people were involved in the emails but Social Security numbers were not included, Palms attorney Elizabeth Nelson said.

Nelson said she couldn't comment on pending litigation, including the sexual harassment claim and details of the lawsuit filed against Hemingway in Clark County District Court.

Hemingway began working as a casino host in the table games department in September 2011, signing a confidentiality agreement, the lawsuit said.

After learning in June that Hemingway was looking for another job, company officials checked her work emails and found confidential information had been compromised, the lawsuit said.

That check revealed that on April 14, she forward to a personal email account a number of confidential documents, including "the entire 2011 marketing strategy for out of town guests," information on 86 high-end players, a telemarketing list of 419 customers with a combined credit of $12 million, a list of more than 1,000 players in the February 2012 slots tournament and the list of 6,000 people who qualified for invitations to the Super Bowl party.

Two weeks tranferring this information, she sent a resume to Wynn Resorts Ltd., according to the Palms.