Berosini pays PETA over court fight

Friday, May 5, 2000 | 11:01 a.m.

Former Las Vegas performer Bobby Berosini payed over $340,000 to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for court costs and interest from an ongoing lawsuit.

Berosini's attorneys turned a $340,230 check over to PETA attorney Bruce Judd for costs from the decade-long legal battle with the entertainer, who used orangutans in his show at the Stardust hotel-casino.

Berosini's show played at the hotel through the late 1980s, when PETA complained the orangutans were being beaten and mistreated. Berosini responded by filing a slander suit and won a $4.2 million judgment in District Court in Las Vegas.

The Supreme Court overturned the judgment and returned the case to District Court where PETA asked for court and legal costs and claimed Berosini tried to conceal his assets by sending them out of the country beginning in 1995.

In February of this year Berosini and his wife were ordered to return $2 million to the United States from Central and South America.

PETA officials say that Berosini still seems to be in violation of that order, and until the money is returned, the organization's case against him and his family will continue.

"There's a lesson here for any entertainers who still feel that beating up on animals is a way to make a living," PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said.

"Berosini kept intelligent apes locked in solid steel boxes for four decades. He needs to go to jail, although even that won't begin to settle the score."