The chief has spoken: District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez will continue hearing Steve Jacobs’ case against Las Vegas Sands.
In a five-page ruling, Chief District Judge David Barker of Clark County in Nevada said the casino firm failed to provide “new grounds to remove” Gonzalez from the case, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Gonzalez has been presiding over Jacobs’ suit for more than five years.
“This court thoroughly evaluated defendant’s arguments and exhibits and found no evidence Judge Gonzalez has actual bias or implied bias in favor of or against any party to this action,” Barker wrote in his ruling, according to the report.
Jacobs filed lawsuit against the Las Vegas-based casino operator after he was abruptly ousted from his CEO role at Sands China Ltd. in July 2010 for still somewhat murky reasons. Jacobs headed Sands’ China operations for about nine months before he was fired, which he claimed came after Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson “pressured him to use illegal means to gain leverage over government officials in the gambling enclave.”
The casino operator has been after the court to remove Gonzalez from the case. In December 2015, Sands sought to disqualify the district judge on claims that she “interjected” herself into the media coverage of the Review Journal, but Barker denied the request on grounds that the company was “unpersuasive” in its arguments.
Jacobs’ lawyer, Todd Bice, believes Barker could be the next on Sands’ list, telling reporters the chief judge should expect claims against him in the near future because “any ruling that is adverse to them [Sands], they will then claim fault with the decision-maker.”
Meanwhile, Adelson is expected to face up to 49 hours of pre-trial questioning in connection with Jacobs’ lawsuit sometime next week.
Bice told the court he expects Adelson’s camp will use any means, including disrupting the sworn deposition, to mess up plans to begin the civil trial on June 27, according to the Associated Press.
“We will start with Mr. Adelson, and then there will be a blow-up in an attempt to obstruct this deposition so it cannot be done,” Bice told Gonzalez on Wednesday.
Jacobs is already undergoing pre-trial questioning by Adelson’s camp.
