Picket’s suit charges Frontier with beating

Bill Gang

Thursday, Feb. 29, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

A union organizer and picket at the strike-plagued Frontier hotel-casino said he was only walking to a nearby resort to use a restroom when Frontier security officers confronted him.

He admits having been a thorn in the Frontier's side since before the strike began in September 1991 and having had his share of standoffs with the resort's security staff.

But the Oct. 29, 1994, incident ended in violence at the north edge of the resort, while stunned tourists watched.

James T. Boyd Jr. filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Frontier charging that he was beaten and disabled with stun guns by a swarm of armed guards who joined in the original altercation.

A videotape of the incident, ironically shot by a Frontier security camera, is going to be a key piece of evidence in legal action filed through attorney Brian Berman.

The video shows a man Berman said is Boyd in a verbal confrontation with one security guard when a second guard approaches the area where traffic was being diverted because of construction on the Desert Inn arterial.

Other guards jumped in

As Boyd backs against a concrete barricade protecting pedestrians from the Strip traffic, the second guard is seen tackling him. Moments later other guards race to jump into the fray.

The incident, Berman said, was on a public sidewalk adjacent to hotel property.

Berman said tiny flashes of light on the videotape are sparks from the stun guns that he alleges left permanent burn marks on Boyd's body.

"It felt like my body was on fire," Boyd said.

According to Berman, Boyd was hit 12 to 15 times with the stun guns that jolts with 50,000 volts.

In the video, it does not appear that the man made any physical moves to provoke the violence. Verbal exchanges, however, were not picked up by the camera set atop the hotel -- one of many cameras that have monitored the nation's longest strike since it began 4 1/2 years ago.

Boyd admitted exchanging words with the first security guard but said that wasn't unusual for the heated labor dispute and had occurred before between him and the same guard.

But Boyd can be seen on the video slipping out of his coat in a move the 26-year-old termed a "defensive stance" just moments before the situation turned violent.

Had no choice

"I had no choice but to defend myself," said Boyd, who was a Culinary Union organizer before the strike and then worked three years on the picket line.

The video ends with Boyd being hauled to the Frontier security office in handcuffs, which Berman said cut into Boyd's wrists and restricted the circulation to his hands.

"That went far beyond the legitimate need for restraint," Berman said.

Boyd, a food service worker who is now employed at another Strip hotel, said Metro Police officers responded to the Frontier but refused to arrest him.

"In response to the picketing activity, the Frontier hired and armed thugs and goons and trained them in an official Frontier policy to engage in unnecessary use of force upon the slightest provocation or no provocation at all," the lawsuit alleges.

Neither Frontier officials nor their attorney could be reached for comment.

The lawsuit charges that the attack by security guards constituted assault and battery and deprived Boyd of his constitutional rights, including his rights as a picket.

"The conduct of the Frontier violated all standards of behavior in a civilized society," the lawsuit states. "Boyd's injuries were more consistent with torture imposed on dissidents under a military junta in a third-world dictatorship."

Unspecified damages

The legal document seeks unspecified compensation for Boyd's actual damages plus punitive damages "to deter (the resort and the guards) from future misconduct, and to set an example."

According to the lawsuit, Boyd's problems with the Frontier began a month before the September 1991 strike when he was terminated.

Berman said the firing later was ruled to be fabricated "in retaliation for his services on behalf of the union's strike organization committee."

A National Labor Relations Board judge ordered Boyd reinstated after a trial, the attorney said.