Woman’s parents open lawsuit against casino

Kim Smith

Thursday, Aug. 22, 2002 | 11:24 a.m.

Harrah's ignored its own rule of "safety first" when confronting a suspected coin bucket thief two years ago, and Heather Vitarelli died as a result, a lawyer for her parents told jurors Wednesday.

Not only did Harrah's security guards leave Stephen Mullen on the crowded casino floor for 18 minutes after identifying him as a suspect, but when they went to arrest him, they didn't have enough guards to do so, Wayne Shaffer said.

"It's foreseeable that a criminal suspect may flee. It's foreseeable that a criminal suspect may pull a weapon. It's foreseeable that a criminal suspect may do any number of things," Shaffer said.

Yet Harrah's didn't bring in backup officers when the decision was made to arrest Mullen, Shaffer said. When two lone officers attempted to handcuff him, he tried to flee and during the ensuing struggle he fired two shots.

One of the bullets struck and killed Vitarelli, a Hawaii resident in Las Vegas for one day to celebrate her 30th birthday. The other struck a security guard, who recovered from his injuries.

Vitarelli's adoptive parents, William and Henrietta Vitarelli, are suing Harrah's, alleging the casino's negligence led to their daughter's death on Sept. 8, 2000.

Wednesday was the first day of the trial before District Judge Mark Denton.

Harrah's attorney, Robert Foster, told jurors that it would have been illegal to immediately place Mullen in handcuffs and take him to a detention room for questioning.

The two officers were left alone with Mullen while their supervisor, Lt. Bobby Johnson, went to view surveillance videos to confirm his identity and see if they had enough evidence for an arrest, Foster said.

"You don't just slap handcuffs on people without having probable cause, but they (the plaintiffs) just want to skip that step," Foster said.

Foster noted that while one of the arresting officers may have been making her first arrest, she also was the one who identified Mullen as a wanted individual in the first place.

Other casinos were looking for Mullen and his partner, Michael Frimmel, but it was Harrah's that caught them that morning, Foster said.

Describing Mullen as an "illogical, raving madman," Foster said it would not have mattered what steps had been taken, he would have tried to flee and he would have pulled his weapon.

"When you see the videos it will be so obvious to you that there was nothing we could have done once (Mullen) decided to run," Foster said. "It's unfortunate we had to have a madman come into our casino and it's unfortunate two people got shot, but all we did was our job."

Mullen, 34, is currently serving a 40-year to life sentence for Vitarelli's death and a consecutive sentence of 16 to 40 years for the shooting of security guard Frank Willis.

Frimmel, 33, who authorities allege accompanied Mullen during a three-week crime spree leading up to Vitarelli's death, is serving two to five years in prison.