CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Kimball Jones delivering his opening statement
Las Vegas, NV - A Nevada state court jury heard opening statements on July 24th in a trial alleging inadequately trained security staff at a Las Vegas restaurant needlessly escalated a verbal confrontation into a multi-party brawl that left a man with a serious brain injury, and the full trial is being webcast gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
Plaintiff Omar Al Rabadi sued Chayo Mexican Kitchen, owned by Caesars Entertainment, following a fight in 2021 that his attorney Kimball Jones of Bighorn Law told jurors resulted from poorly trained bouncers failing to de-escalate a confrontation between Rabadi's friends and another group of patrons.
Jones argued Rabadi suffered a violent beating in the confrontation that left him with a brain injury serious enough to cost him a promising technical career in the US Navy, but Caesars argues the blows that injured Rabadi didn’t come from any security staff, and that the severity of his claimed injuries is overstated.
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Jones described to jurors how Al Rabadi and a group of friends visited Chayo as part of a family celebration but became involved in a verbal altercation with another group. After spending a substantial portion of time walking jurors through the establishment’s stated policies for bouncer interventions, Jones showed jurors chaotic surveillance video that he argued showed a rapid and unnecessary escalation of physical force.
The brawl spilled outside the restaurant, where Jones said Al Rabadi suffered multiple forceful kicks to the head that left him with a diffuse axonal brain injury in addition to severe contusions. Jones only addressed the issue of liability in the bifurcated trial, but he argued Caesars should also be liable for punitive damages due to their alleged attempts to destroy records and video related to the incident.
Defense attorney Joel Odou of Wood Smith Henning & Berman LLP conceded Al Rabadi suffered a violent assault but insisted the blows that actually injured him came from an unidentified assailant.
CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Joel Odou delivering his opening statement
Relying heavily on the same chaotic surveillance video as Jones, Odou told jurors the fight was the eventual result of a number of individuals' conduct. He admitted a security guard was fired as a result of his actions that evening, but he also insisted bouncers have a fundamental responsibility to remove patrons who seem headed towards a physical confrontation.
Odou also questioned the severity of Ramadi’s claimed brain injury, suggesting the possibility he could eventually develop dementia as Jones argued isn’t guaranteed, and that jurors should not award damages based on a hypothetical outcome.
The trial is taking place before Judge Jasmin Lilly-Spells in Nevada’s Eighth Judicial District Court in Clark County under the caption Omar Alrabadi v. Three Amigos Restaurant Group LLC, doing business as Chayo Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar and Caesars Linq, LLC, case number A-23-874247-C.
Email David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com
