Group sues Fremont Street Experience over drink stands

Grace Leong

Monday, Dec. 30, 2002 | 10:32 a.m.

An activist group for people with disabilities is battling the Fremont Street Experience LLC over temporary bars, which allegedly aren't accessible to wheelchair users, at the downtown Las Vegas attraction.

Tamara Thompson and the Disabled Rights Action Committee sued Fremont Street in U.S. District Court, alleging it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by allowing temporary bars that failed to provide counters that were 36 inches above the ground and failed to provide a level ground surface for wheelchair users.

Thompson and another DRAC member, who attended a "ho down" at Fremont Street on Dec. 5 to celebrate the start of the 2002 National Finals Rodeo, said that while they were able to buy beverages at the bars, the "lack of ready access caused them to sustain substantial affront and indignity."

Similar accessibility complaints were raised in May 2001 by another DRAC activist, Ronald Ray Smith, as part of a lawsuit he brought against Fremont Street. Smith, who visited Fremont Street on April 21, 2001, claimed Fremont Street allowed the use of a mobile grill and two mobile bars that have inaccessible customer service counters.

But these allegations were dismissed by senior U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush, who ruled in July 2001 that "there has been no showing of injury" because Smith wasn't denied access to services of the bars and grill.

DRAC attorney Richard Armknecht said DRAC, which appealed Quackenbush's ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and lost, is now petitioning the Supreme Court to review the 9th Circuit's decision.

Armknecht said Thompson and DRAC sued Fremont Street over the same issue because the temporary bars she had encountered in December 2002 were the same bars encountered by Smith in 2001.

"The ADA statutes state that these facilities have to be readily accessible to people with disabilities," he said. "When Tamara bought her drink, she was denied ready access. She had to reach higher to get it. It's belittling. It's not fair for these people, after the ADA is in place, to be disregarded."

Fremont Street officials could not be reached for comment on Thompson's allegations.

Except for Fremont Street's alleged practice of allowing inaccessible temporary bars, Armknecht said it has fixed many of the problems cited by Smith in his complaint. These include providing sufficient handicapped-accessible parking, ramps on its parking lot toll booths at its garage and providing a mobile lift that allows access to temporary stage areas.