Strip club asked to pay for death

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, Jan. 9, 2003 | 9:11 a.m.

A California woman told a District Court jury Wednesday that she cannot go on with her life until someone pays for her husband's beating death at a Las Vegas topless club nearly eight years ago.

Camille Fau is suing the Crazy Horse Too and three employees for her husband's August 1995 death.

Fau's attorney, Randall Pike, said security guards at the club, located at 2476 Industrial Road, beat Scott Fau to death after an argument. His body was found next to railroad tracks behind the club.

The lawsuit, filed in 1997, claims the club permitted its employees to injure the man.

In addition to the business, the lawsuit targets club employees Paul Luca and Darrin Brey and the club's manager, Michael Muscat.

Camille Fau and her two daughters, Francesca, 12, and Nicole, 9, of Carson, Calif., are seeking unspecified general and punitive damages from the club.

Scott Fau, 39, an interstate truck driver, was visiting the club with other truck drivers when the incident occurred.

He was 6-foot-4 and 310 pounds, but Camille Fau said she never knew her husband to be violent.

"He was one of the kindest men I ever met," she said. "I knew him not only as his wife but as his friend."

Camille Fau, now a schoolteacher, said she and her children suffered serious financial hardship after her husband's death.

They had to live in her parent's dining room for a brief period of time, she said.

"It was very tight," she said. "It was a very stressful time for the kids and me."

Camille Fau said her daughters have suffered the most since their father's death. Both girls suffer from nightmares and they are constantly afraid that she too might be hurt one day, she testified.

Defense attorney Marsha Stephenson declined to cross-examine Fau.

Israel Bella, another witness for the plaintiff, said he was driving north on Industrial past the Crazy Horse when he noticed a large group of men in front of the club. Bella, who works for a local paving company, was on his way to work when he noticed a man on the ground, surrounded by a group of men all wearing black pants, he testified. He called 911.

"There was one guy on the ground kind of curled up in a ball," he said. "It looked like he was trying to protect himself."