Woman files $4 million lawsuit against Metro

Jace Radke

Friday, Aug. 27, 2004 | 11:15 a.m.

A Las Vegas woman who says she suffered a broken wrist and a shattered kneecap at the hands of Metro Police while being dragged through the lobby of Palace Station is suing the department for $4 million.

The suit filed Thursday in federal court relies on a video taken in the early morning hours of Sept. 7, 2003, that shows Paula Sadoff, 56, handcuffed and being dragged out the doors of the Sahara Road casino's hotel lobby by Officer Matthew Vorce.

Sadoff watched the surveillance tape for the first time Thursday at the office of her lawyer, Brent Bryson.

"Holy Jesus," Sadoff said as she covered her mouth with her hand while watching herself being dragged from an elevator. "It's just humiliating and embarrassing. I still can't believe it happened."

The video shows people at the hotel staring as Sadoff is dragged by the officer along the floor by her upper arm.

The suit alleges that once she was outside the lobby Sadoff was, "slammed against a police car, and then slammed on her knees on the concrete."

Alan Lichtenstein, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, viewed the 50-second tape and said that the behavior of the officer was indefensible.

"This woman is clearly not resisting at all on the tape, and yet she is still being dragged like a sack of potatoes with her arms handcuffed behind her," Lichtenstein said. "There is no conceivable justification for the behavior of the officer on the tape."

Metro officials said they had no comment about Vorce's actions on the tape or the lawsuit, citing department policy that restricts comments on pending litigation. Vorce has been with Metro for a little over two years, and now works as a patrol officer in West Las Vegas at the Bolden substation.

Police had been called to the hotel after Sadoff and her 84-year-old husband, Bob Sadoff, had argued in Jack's Irish Pub and then continued arguing in their adjoining rooms upstairs.

According to the arrest report Bob Sadoff had gotten into an argument with a man in the pub who was looking at Paula Sadoff. Paula asked casino security to intervene, and the Sadoffs were escorted to their rooms while arguing with each other.

The argument continued in the room, and Metro was called by casino security. The Sadoffs each refused medical attention and failed to obey officers orders as they were being taken to waiting patrol cars downstairs, the police report alleges.

When asked if he was struck by Paula, Bob Sadoff, said she had given him a "love tap" on his left cheek, the report states.

The tape shows that after her hands were cuffed behind her back, Paula Sadoff was dragged from the hotel elevator through the lobby and out to the police car.

Bryson called the dragging the most egregious act of unreasonable force by a Metro officer caught on tape. It is unclear whether or not Paula Sadoff is conscious or not as she is dragged by her upper left arm.

"Clearly the officer is acting outside policy and procedures," Bryson said. "If she had fainted she should have been taken out on a gurney. I've never seen anything like this."

Along with Vorce and Metro, the Palace Station also is named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that the casino's security officers did not investigate enough before calling Metro and caused Sadoff to be humiliated by allowing her to be dragged through the lobby.

The suit asks for $10,000 in compensatory damages from the casino, and $3 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages from Metro.

A spokeswoman with Station Casinos said that company executives had not yet seen the lawsuit Thursday afternoon, and that it was company policy not to comment on litigation.

Sadoff and her husband were both arrested and charged with a domestic violence misdemeanor, but the charges were not pursued, Bryson said.

They spent a night in jail, and when they were released Paula said she went to University Medical Center where she was diagnosed with a fractured wrist and a shattered kneecap.

"I have four bolts in my knee, and I'm going to have to have surgery to take them out," said Sadoff, who said she now uses a cane when shopping. "I was in a wheelchair for six months, used a walker for two and a half months and have been through eight months of therapy."

Paula Sadoff said she remembers nothing from the time the officers came to her room to the time she awoke inside the Clark County Detention Center.

"I was scared," Sadoff said of waking up in a cell at the jail. "I got up to try to use the urinal and my leg went out from under me. I knew my leg and wrist were hurt."

Sadoff said that when she complained of her pain a nurse at the jail examined her, but did not check her knee. She said the nurse did tell her she had a fractured wrist.

The Sadoffs did not file a complaint with the department or with the Citizens Review Board.

They did not file a complaint with the department, Bryson said, because based upon how he has seen the department handle complaints it would have been a "futile waste of time."

Paula Sadoff said that she and her husband often visited Palace Station, and were in the process of permanently moving to Las Vegas from California when the incident happened.

"I didn't fight them or resist them, and they just dragged me out," Sadoff said. "It's very difficult to come forward and speak about this, but what's right is right and what's wrong is wrong.

"I don't want this to happen to someone else."