Little A’Le’Inn owner awarded $3.4M in Storm Area 51 lawsuit

Connie West looks directly into the camera. As she takes a sip of water, the owner of the Little A’Le’Inn in Rachel asks, with a bit of a smirk, “You wanna know how much money I won in the lawsuit?”

The moment comes near the end of the two-part documentary “Trainwreck: Storm Area 51,” debuting July 29 on Netflix. The previous half-hour or so chronicles West’s falling-out with Matty Roberts, who launched the Storm Area 51 meme, and Frank DiMaggio, the Las Vegas-based event promoter who had partnered with him to stage the Alienstock festival in Rachel.

On Sept. 9, 2019, Roberts and DiMaggio pulled out of Alienstock, 11 days before it was scheduled to begin, in favor of the Bud Light Area 51 Celebration at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center. Eight days later, West sued Hidden Sound LLC and its backers — Roberts, DiMaggio, Brock Daily and John Greco. The number that flashes on the screen in lieu of West’s response is astonishing: $3,438,017.15.

Sure enough, a search of court records shows multiple monetary judgments in favor of West, including ones of $200,000 and $600,000 for “defamation per se.” The largest judgment was $1,480,491.21 for “intentional interference with contractual relationships and prospective economic advantage.”

Other totals revealed in the documentary include Lincoln County’s expenses of $250,000, which is $50,000 more than had been reported. The U.S. military spent what the documentary says is an estimated $11 million preparing for and policing the event. Roberts, meanwhile, made $1,700 from selling T-shirts. DiMaggio, who’s interviewed inside what looks to be an empty strip club, doesn’t mince words about the lawsuit.

“She can chase me to the ends of the earth. They can put me in jail,” he says. “She’ll still never get the money.”