Disabled rights activists settle suit against hotel-casino

Friday, May 19, 2000 | 10:50 a.m.

Disabled Rights Action Committee activists, who accused the Rio hotel-casino of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, have dropped their lawsuit against the Las Vegas resort after winning a settlement in April.

Richard Armknecht, DRAC's attorney, declined to reveal terms of the settlement, but said DRAC won the settlement because of "strong language" directed by U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben toward the Rio at a March 27 hearing for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.

Armknecht said McKibben had set a trial date and suggested he was "inclined" to make an injunction, which would limit the Rio to using only wheelchair-accessible buses on its shuttle services, effective as of May 15.

In a May 4 order, McKibben canceled the trial and ordered each party to pay its own costs.

DRAC activist Ronald Ray Smith sued the Rio in 1998, alleging he couldn't board the Rio's shuttle buses in June and July of that year because three of its five buses lacked wheelchair lifts and one of the retrofitted buses had a defective wheelchair lift.