Topless club hit with suit

Bob Shemeligian

Thursday, June 26, 1997 | 11:48 a.m.

A second lawsuit within the past three months claims thugs are rolling customers walking to the entrance of Cheetah's Topless Lounge at 2112 Western Ave.

The latest suit, filed Wednesday by Las Vegas attorney Douglas Cohen, charges that his client, 52-year-old Timothy Owen, a patron of Cheetah's, was beaten so severely in the parking lot of the nightclub Sept. 28, 1996, that he remains in a "semi-vegetative" state.

In his suit, filed in District Court, Cohen lists more than 230 police calls at Cheetah's in the two-year period prior to the night that Owen was assaulted.

The calls range from reports of assault and battery to automobile burglary to attempted murder.

The suit alleges that the number of crimes and disturbances at Cheetah's during that time contributed to a "cesspool of criminal activity on the premises" and were of such a character that the management of Cheetah's should have "reasonably anticipated" that there was danger to patrons.

Owen, a former music and organ teacher at Las Vegas Pianos & Organs, was struck on the head by a blunt object in the Cheetah's parking area, suffered massive brain damage, and today remains in a local rehabilitation center "with no reasonable expectation of recovery," according to the suit.

Plaintiffs in the action include Owen, family members Ed and Sandra Jebber, and Karen Dermont, Owen's physician.

Named as defendants in the suit are the Castellanos Family Trust, which owns the property; La Fuente Inc., a Nevada corporation that owns Cheetah's, and Jack and Michael Galardi, principals in the corporation.

The suit seeks unspecified damages, but Cohen noted, "Obviously, this is a multimillion-dollar case. Mr. Owen's medical care alone is over $100,000 each year."

Cohen's suit is similar to a March 14 action filed by attorney Daniel Carvalho on behalf of James Cotta, an area resident who claims he was "severely beaten and permanently injured" on the property Oct. 11.

"We've done a lot of footwork, and we've found a wealth of prior incidents," said Carvalho, who charged that many patrons of Cheetah's have been assaulted and robbed in recent months.

"What this indicates to me is that they were operating a business where it was likely that people would be assaulted in the parking lot," Carvalho said. "This is evidenced not only by Doug Cohen's client, but additionally by at least five others, and some of those were gun robberies."

But Cheetah's attorney Peter Christiansen said many portions of the recent suit are without merit.

"The thing that's really bothersome in this suit is that it makes some allegations that employees of Cheetah's did some of this (criminal activity), and it was the employees who found Mr. Owen and who saved his life," Christiansen said. "They called the ambulance while one of the guys who works there held him in his arms."

The suit alleges that Cheetah's "negligently hired, trained, supervised and retained their employees and bouncers concerning security and the safety of patrons ... and in the alternative, employees and bouncers ... intentionally assaulted and battered Tim Owen" or subjected him to the criminal acts of others."

Christiansen also noted that in recent months, the management of Cheetah's has added additional video cameras inside and outside the club and has installed more outdoor floodlight throughout the property.

But Cohen countered that any attempts to beef up security were made after his client was seriously injured.

The suit also alleges that Cheetah's has "negligently" and perhaps "intentionally" misrepresented to the public the nature and safety of Cheetah's through advertising.

About that charge, Cohen noted: "They do advertise a false sense of security. After all, there are slogans (promoting Cheetah's) on practically every cab you see."