Thursday, April 2, 1998 | 10:13 a.m.
A court battle being waged gives a peek into the private lives of the Sultan of Brunei and his family, and gives the royal family a taste of the law in a country they do not rule.
District Judge Sally Loehrer on Wednesday rejected a request by attorneys for the royal family for a temporary restraining order to prevent a fired security consultant from testifying in court and, perhaps, telling all in a book or on television talk shows.
The case revolves around George Chock, a retired Honolulu police officer and also involves a female security employee for the family, Laura McCready, who filed a sexual harassment complaint against the royals.
What the Sultan and his family want to prevent is any testimony by Chock supporting McCready's claim that she was sexually harassed while providing security for Jefridah Louis, second wife of Prince Jefri, the brother of the Sultan.
On the fringe of the feud is former Miss America Shannon LaRhea Marketic -- who has her own lawsuit pending over treatment by members of the royal family and their entourage.
The motion filed by the royal family's attorney, Thomas Kummer, argued that court intervention was needed to prevent Chock from disclosing "confidential information" about the family, which owns a compound at Spanish Trail, a gated community in southwest Las Vegas.
Kummer's motion points to a confidentiality agreement Chock signed as part of his $14,000-a-month job overseeing the compound's operation and security. It claims Chock's "past disclosures have irreparably harmed" a family owned company, Amedeo Vegas IV Inc.
That is the company that sued Chock, but Loehrer concluded in tossing out the case Wednesday that Amedeo Vegas is not authorized to do business in Nevada. Chock's lawyer, Gregory Denue, conceded it is only a temporary setback for the royal family because Amedeo Vegas can gain authorization within 45 days and begin a new courtroom attempt to silence Chock.
But Denue said that Loehrer also concluded in the closed-door hearing that Chock "didn't breach a confidentiality agreement with anybody."
In court documents, Denue charged the case "is nothing more than an attempt to bully Chock, who had the temerity to testify on behalf of two females in their sexual harassment claims."
"Chock courageously decided that telling the truth regarding the unremitting sexual harassment of fellow female workers was worth more than the $14,000 per month that he was making," Denue said.
"What the plaintiffs are trying to do is beyond the bounds of societal decency," said Denue, adding that a "huge" wrongful termination lawsuit will be filed by Chock against the royal family.
The attorney said that because Chock was "willing to do the right thing, from the plaintiff's point of view, he had to be stopped for that very reason."
Chock, a 25-year law enforcement veteran, was lured away from Hawaii by the royal family in 1996 and originally worked to safeguard Jefridah Louis on travels around the world and to the nightclubs she routinely frequented.
Eventually he was assigned to oversee the Las Vegas compound until his termination on Oct. 30, 1997, amid the harassment controversy.
Denue noted that only portions of Chock's stories are under attack.
"The plaintiffs do not take issue with Chock divulging what the Sultan of Brunei or his family had for breakfast, they are annoyed based on ... the divulging of the on-going deviancy former employees are subjected to," he wrote.
Denue argued in court papers that the royal family, and particularly the Sultan and his brother Jefri, have been the subject of numerous articles about their personal lives and the court must consider "the heightened public interest in their personal activities."
Chock already has given statements in court proceedings about traveling with Prince Jefri and 15 to 20 women, some of whom were U.S. citizens.
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