Jury hands beating victim $5.8 mil.

Bill Gang

Friday, April 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

The story of Joseph Canterino's ill-fated visit to Las Vegas in 1992 developed into a kind of Runyon-esque saga in 1997, with twists and turns and eventually something of a happy ending -- at least for him.

It wasn't so happy for The Mirage hotel-casino, which must pay $5.8 million to Canterino, a District Court jury decided Thursday.

Canterino -- the son of a reputed Genovese crime family "captain" -- was mugged while carrying $72,000 in cash down a hotel corridor.

The beating he suffered in the unmonitored and sparsely patrolled lobby on the 16th floor left him permanently disabled and emotionally crippled, attorney Marty Keach argued to the jury in District Judge Stephen Huffaker's courtroom.

The perpetrators, according to Canterino, were two Hispanic men -- one with a big belly and the other with an open shirt and a hairy chest.

A maid testified in court that she saw them lurking in the hallway -- shifty-eyed and muttering in Spanish -- for at least an hour and a half before she heard the assault.

But that was the first time she told the story to anyone and Mirage attorney Carolyn Ellsworth picked it apart until it had little value, according to jurors' comments after the verdict.

Canterino's own testimony was full of holes but six of the eight jurors filled in the blanks enough to find the hotel responsible for the robbery.

Chris Fossier, the jury forewoman, said much of what Canterino said couldn't be believed, but the deciding factor in the verdict was the lack of security provided in the tower.

"There were no cameras," she said. "If they had been there, perhaps we wouldn't be here today."

Juror Scott Woodall noted that Mirage witnesses indicated $6.5 million a year is spent on the resort's security, but "it wasn't spent in the tower."

"There were three guards for the tower," he said.

Keach said The Mirage spent more on security for Siegfried and Roy's white tigers and the dolphins than on security for 3,000 guests on the 29 floors of the tower.

"The Mirage knew it was fertile environment for criminal conduct," he told the jury during closing arguments Wednesday.

But Warren Bates, one of two on the eight-member jury who voted not to award Canterino anything, said that while security could have been improved, "I didn't feel it was the proximate cause of the incident."

"I felt that Canterino came in with unclean hands," he said, indicating that he believed the now-40-year-old New York longshoreman was hiding vital bits of information that might have solved the mystery.

Fossier called the multimillion-dollar award "a wake-up call" for The Mirage -- and, perhaps, the resort industry.

Keach said the jury "showed a lot of courage and strength to tell somebody as big as The Mirage that little people count."

The Canterino who came to Las Vegas in 1992 for a gambling spree with $100,000 in cash was a much different man than the one in court five years later.

Testimony indicated Canterino arrived in Las Vegas as a robust longshoreman who spent much of his off time playing in New York's competitive softball leagues. He was an outgoing man with an admitted penchant for gambling and a gift for horse races.

Canterino told how he has won more than $1 million betting on those races.

The beating he suffered robbed him of his athletic prowess and left him housebound with resulting phobias that make it difficult for him to cope with open spaces or crowds, Keach said. There was testimony of "nightly panic attacks" and hearing loss.

He couldn't even attend the funeral of his father, who died in prison, Keach said.

Canterino broke down into tears of anxiety on the witness stand until he was allowed by the judge to move to a more protected spot by a wall for his testimony.

Of the money he brought to Las Vegas, Canterino said $80,000 was given to him as a stake by four fellow longshoremen.

He explained to the jury that he never carried credit cards and dealt only in cash.

Security videotapes in the casino captured him peeling bills off huge rolls stuffed into the belly bag he wore.

But after the attack, the only thing he would have left would be the bag, oddly re-zipped by the muggers.

The security videos in the casino and the elevators plus telephone and room service records were also sources of problems for Canterino.

He testified that he was in Las Vegas alone and knew no one here. Yet Ellsworth noted during closing arguments that Canterino ordered double meals in his room and scoffed at the longshoreman's explanation that he was a big eater.

There also were telephone calls made to New York from the room while security videos showed Canterino gambling at the roulette tables in the casino.

He was caught in a falsehood about going back to his room at one point, when videos at the elevators showed he never made the trip.

Then there was the lack of a videotape at the elevators showing the muggers making their escape, Ellsworth pointed out.

"I felt what he was hiding was far more plausible than his own story," Bates said. "I felt the person he was hiding was involved."

But there was no question Canterino suffered a serious beating, although Ellsworth questioned whether the psychological scars were as deep as he and psychologists had indicated.

She said that although he claimed to be incapable of leaving his mother's home in New York, he managed every day of the trial to walk alone between the courthouse and the Lady Luck hotel-casino three blocks away.

But Keach said Canterino's scars are real and the jury award is justified. Although less than the $8 million he had requested, the attorney said the judgment was "fair."

"The jury understands he can't go outside," he said. "They understand he can't have a life. He has had a long, tough five years and is going to have a long, tough rest of his life."

The Mirage is expected to appeal the judgment.