Casino employee wins $200,000 in suit over firing

Thursday, May 2, 2002 | 11:19 a.m.

A Clark County jury awarded $200,000 in damages to a former MGM Grand worker who filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in 1998 against the hotel-casino and the now-closed Official All Star Cafe on the Las Vegas Strip.

Charles Garrison, who was hired as a stage hand for MGM Grand Garden Arena in 1993, said he was wrongfully terminated in 1997 after he used a complimentary invitation to ring up a $200 tab on food and drinks for himself, his wife and two friends at the All Star Cafe.

Garrison said the comp was left on his desk at work by an alleged representative of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team, which was playing in a pre-season National Hockey League game hosted by MGM in late September 1997. The sports-themed restaurant, which closed in January 2000, had given the comp to the Kings.

Garrison, who said he was falsely accused of acting in a "rude and obnoxious manner and misrepresenting himself to get a 'comped' meal," said these accusations were "unfounded" and later recanted by All Star Cafe public relations manager Hillary Smoot.

MGM, which said the comp wasn't intended for him, claimed Garrison wanted to use the All Star Cafe's VIP room and allegedly repeatedly "refused to accept no for an answer."

MGM challenged the verdict reached March 26, saying it wants a new trial and for the award to be reduced because the jury awarded damages that "far exceed Garrison's own calculations at trial." But Clark County District Judge Valorie Vega denied MGM's request on April 22.