Gonzalez to continue on Jacobs lawsuit against Las Vegas Sands

Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez will retain control over a civil case involving a Sands China executive who was fired in 2010, the court's chief judge ruled Friday.

The ruling by Chief District Judge David Barker follows a Jan. 13 motion by defendant Las Vegas Sands Corp to disqualify Gonzalez. It was the latest of several attempts to remove Gonzalez from the long-running case.

"Defendant presents no evidence Judge Gonzalez has actual bias or implied bias either in favor of or against any party to this action," Barker wrote in Friday's six-page order.

In its motion, Las Vegas Sands cited "recent intensified media coverage of the lawsuit" as one of the "new grounds" for requesting the judge's disqualification.

"After years of apparent silence, the court has responded to that media coverage by contributing to the coverage," according to the motion. "That participation raises doubts about the court's impartiality and objectivity."

Gonzalez responded with a declaration in which she denied "a bias toward or prejudice against" Las Vegas Sands.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez suspended all hearings in the case until Barker ruled on the matter. A trial is scheduled to begin June 27.

"We are surprised and very disappointed that Judge Barker denied our motion to disqualify Judge Gonzalez before we had even had an opportunity to address the statements made in her affidavit – which was the affidavit he ultimately used to deny our motion," Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese said in a statement.

Steven Jacobs, former president and CEO of Sands China Ltd., filed the wrongful termination lawsuit shortly after he was fired after nine months as the head of the company's operations in China. Defendants include Las Vegas Sands; Sheldon Adelson, the company's chairman and CEO; and Sands China. Jacobs claims he was terminated "for blowing the whistle on improprieties and placing the interests of shareholders above those of Adelson."

In November, the Nevada Supreme Court also rejected a request to assign the case to a different judge.

The latest attempt to remove Gonzalez came on the heels of a Jan. 12 court hearing related to the deposition of Adelson's son-in-law, Patrick Dumont. During his deposition the previous day, Dumont had refused to answer any questions about contact with Michael Schroeder, the disgraced Connecticut newspaper owner associated with the Adelson family's recent purchase of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Dumont orchestrated the purchase.

Gonzalez ruled that Dumont's lawyer had acted "inappropriately" under Nevada law when he directed his client not to answer questions about whether he had discussed Jacobs or his wrongful termination case with Schroeder. Dumont's deposition continued after the Jan. 12 hearing, but his answers to questions that day have not been made public.

Lawyers for Las Vegas Sands included more than a dozen news articles in their recent motion for disqualification. The articles appeared the previous month in local, national and international publications.

"From at least November 30, 2015, until the present day, this case has been the subject of saturated media coverage prompted by a change in ownership of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which has no bearing on the resolution of Steven C. Jacobs's claim that he was wrongfully terminated from employment in Macau in July 2010," according to the motion.

Sands lawyers argued that Gonzalez's comments to the press "have become part of the saturated coverage."

Adelson's family purchased the Review-Journal on Dec. 10 through its Delaware-domiciled News + Media Capital Group.

The recent news coverage, combined with the judge's recent comments, would lead a "reasonable person" to believe that she "has a direct, certain, and immediate interest in media coverage of this lawsuit," according to the motion.

One of Schroeder's Connecticut newspapers on Nov. 30 published an article that was critical of Gonzalez. The author of the plagiarized, partially fabricated article was Edward Clarkin, a pseudonym. The article was published about the same time three RJ reporters were ordered by GateHouse Media, the newspaper's former owner, to monitor Gonzalez and two other judges.

Gonzalez has acknowledged responding to two media requests for comment about the RJ's courtroom monitoring but said she "did not discuss a particular litigant or case." In one instance, she said only that she's accustomed to having reporters in her courtroom.

According to Friday's order, Las Vegas Sands failed "to establish sufficient factual grounds warranting disqualification."

"This court finds that a reasonable person knowing all the facts would not harbor reasonable doubts about Judge Gonzalez's impartiality with respect to any issues raised in defendant's motion," Barker wrote.

On Jan. 20, Jacobs filed an emergency motion that sought to prevent Sands lawyers from further delaying his case. In it, he accused Las Vegas Sands of trying to "derail" his rights "through improper and unlawful maneuvering."

Attorney Todd Bice, who represents Jacobs, could not be reached Friday.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710. Find her on Twitter: @CarriGeer