Las Vegas Injury Lawyers Blog

"Ricky Martin Busts Peeping Tom Fans Hiding in Hotel Air Conditioner," Fox News Latino
"Erin Andrews files lawsuit against Peeping Tom and hotels." Los Angeles Times.

With millions of visitors, thousands of employees, and hundreds of celebrities in the Las Vegas area each year, "peeping toms" are expected and present. But does their peeping rise to the level of being criminally or civilly liable?

Under Nevada's "Peeping Tom" laws, a person is criminally liable for a misdemeanor if they knowingly "enter" onto someone else's property and secretly peep (spy) on that person. Like most states with "Peeping Tom" laws, a person is deemed a "peeping tom" if the person being peeped ...

1. ... does not know they are being watched,
2. ... is partially or fully undressed, naked, and
3. ... had a reasonable expectation they were in a place with privacy, whether they owned the property or not.

While most peeping is done for sexual pleasure, that is not a prerequisite to finding someone guilty of being a "peeping tom."

If found guilty, a Nevada "peeping tom" can be fined up to $1 thousand and/or receive a sentence of up to six months in jail. If the "peeping tom" used a camera or any type of recording device to engage in their peeping, the fine goes up to $2 thousand and/or a sentence of up to a year in jail. If a deadly weapon was involved in the peeping, a "peeping tom" can be fined up to $5 thousand and/or receive a sentence of up to six years in jail.

If the peeping occurs on a Las Vegas employee at a Las Vegas business, the Las Vegas business may also be liable for sexual harassment. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the number of employment discrimination cases, which includes sexual harassment, rose 32 percent from 2005 to 2010. More important, the EEOC projects that up to 95% of sexual harassment occurrences are never reported.

The commentary is for educational and commentary purposes only. If you or someone you know has had your rights are violated or feel there are illegal practices occurring at your work and would like to be represented by a Nevada attorney, contact our office for a free confidential case review and receive a response within hours. Call Toll Free 866-414-0400.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Nevada Fair Employment Practices Act (NV Rev. Stat. Sec. 613.310et seq.), Las Vegas employers with 15 or more employees may not discriminate against their employees on the basis of sex or sexual orientation/stereotyping. As of October 2011, Las Vegas employers also are prohibited from discriminating based on gender identity. For federal and state purposes, sexual harassment is sex discrimination. Two of the biggest obstacles in any sexual harassment case are 1) defining what sexual harassment is, and 2) sufficiently proving that sexual harassment occurred.

What is Sexual Harassment?
"I know it when I see it." These words, uttered by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in describing his test to determine what is and is not pornography, can also be aptly applied in describing sexual harassment - the person allegedly harassed knows it when they see or feel offended.

The victim can be the person directly harassed, or someone offended by the conduct. Additionally, the harasser can be a fellow employee - supervisor or co-worker - or someone who has a business relationship with the employer - agent or client.

Generally acts of sexual harassment fall into two categories:

Quid Pro Quo: A person in a position of power makes sexual demands on another person by or through direct or overt pressure.

Hostile environment: The work environment allows unwelcome sexual behavior that creates an offensive, hostile, or intimidating workplace, affects the victim's employment, or unreasonably interferes with the victim's work performance.

Sexual harassment generally includes the following type of behavior:
1) sexist statements or behavior that insult or degrade one's gender; for instance, making sexual comments about another person's body parts or appearance, telling lewd jokes, or divulging sexual anecdotes.
2) unwelcomed or inappropriate physical or verbal seductive behavior, such as sharing or posting sexually inappropriate images, making sexual gestures, touching, or asking questions about one's sexual history or orientation.
3) sexual bribery or coercion, which includes a promise of reward for engaging in or threat of punishment for not engaging in a sexual activity.

Proving Sexual Harassment
The burden of proof to prove sexual harassment occurs is always initially with the alleged victim. In addition to showing an act or acts of sexual harassment occurred, the victim must also demonstrate that they are part of a class protected against sexual harassment, a complaint (preferably in writing) was appropriately made to management or followed the employer's stated chain of command in such situations, and that the employer failed to act on the complaint. Once the victim meets this burden, to avoid damages, a Las Vegas employer must show the complained upon acts did not constitute harassment or were not sexual in nature, the victim was not a member of a protected class, no or an insufficient complaint was made, and the Las Vegas employer properly acted on the complaint.

While sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim, economic injury - firing, suspension, demotion, and relocation - and other forms of retaliation -ostracization, coworker harassment, and undesirable changes to job duties - towards the victim are also prohibited. A separate cause of action for retaliation is available to the victim, and if proven, can strengthen the victim's sexual harassment case.

Continue reading "Sexual Harassment is Sexual Discrimination" »

Written By Las Vegas based Law Clerk: Robert Maxey (Las Vegas, Nevada)

When I was little, I was taught that sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. While comforting as a child, this is sometimes not the case as a Las Vegas adult living, in a vibrant and sometimes ugly, world of communication. Words have amazing power and can change the course of someone's life. However, this power is not found in the word, but rather from the person who is communicating the message. The message that is being transmitted when we communicate with words is filled with our thoughts and emotions. It is a child's folly to believe that what people think about us does not matter.

For better and for worse, we are subject to people's opinions. They can carry us through tough times or push us directly into them. It is for these reasons that jokes, snide remarks, and harassment can have a real impact at the work place. However, sexual harassment may have a greater impact, being that it is often harassment regarding a sensitive nature. When executives in charge participate in sexual harassment, the damage can be much worse.

A sexual harassment case has been settled in favor of Londi Lindell for $1,000,000. Lindell worked as the Mercer Island Deputy City Manager for several years. In her legal claims, she alleged that City Manager Rich Conrad fired her because of her objection to how he conducted a disciplinary matter. Further, she claims that several employees of the city participated in inappropriate behavior and jokes regarding human anatomy.

Lindell's case was settled with the city's insurer. Under the settlement agreement, Lindell work records will say that she resigned from office, she will receive a letter of recommendation, and the city will pay a job search firm to find a new job for her. Lindell says the reason she sued, was because of the careers of those who had to work within the conditions at the city.

While the parties worked out a solution in this particular case of sexual harassment, it has not alleviated the problem. Sexual harassment is a form of actual pain that causes actual suffering. When people are forced to work within these conditions, they are being forced into a form of torture. Sexual Harassment is actually a form of sex discrimination (see What's Wrong With Sexual Harassment?). Preventing sexual harassment is not just a good thing to do, it is the right thing to do.

A full article can be found here: Former Mercer Island official settles harassment suit for $1M

Continue reading "$1,000,000 For Sexual Harassment" »

Written By Las Vegas based Law Clerk: Robert Maxey (Las Vegas, Nevada)

"Equal pay for equal work" has been the mantra for woman's work since the start of the feminist movement. In our current world, women are still making less than men for the same type of work. Women are only earning 77.5 cents for every dollar a man earns. Further, women who work harder to receive higher education levels actually have even more of a disparity in wages earned compared with men. This obviously doesn't seem fair when we have such a long history in our country fighting for what is right and just in the world. What is an even more staggering statistic is that in 99% of all occupations a woman has to choose from, they will make less than men.

These kinds of statistics and facts seem to fly in the face of reason and good faith. Recently within the city of Detroit, allegations have been made against the Detroit Water and Sewage Department on sex discrimination. The former director, Pamela Turner, had earned a salary of $130,000 when she first started working there. Although this seems like a healthy salary, she was in fact making approximately $100,000 less than the previous two directors who were male.

Turner, after receiving recognition for her hard work and pushing for a pay increase, was eventually was given a raise to $155,000. Despite this raise, it still paled in comparison to the $240,000 that her predecessors made. She eventually put in her resignation allegedly due to the refusal of the city to compensate her adequately. She claims that, after her resignation, the city has posted listings for her replacement at a compensation of $230,000.

That alleged facts of this case are indeed shocking. To this writer, it seems like an obvious case of sex discrimination; former and future heads of the department will be making around the same amount of money while Turner was paid considerably less. When they attempted to give her a raise, it was a paltry amount, possibly to appease her desire for equal pay.

The government and state agencies should always be leading the way in fair employment practices. Additionally, we hold the officials of our cities to a stricter code because we expect that as keepers of the city they will follow our laws. If people perform equal work then they should be receiving equal pay. To hold similar work to different standards, solely because of the sex of the person performing the work, deteriorates our system. If people are treated fairly, they will usually be happier than if they are discriminated against and happier workers are more productive. The system works as long as we work within the system.

A full article can be found here: Former Detroit water chief sues city, alleging pay discrimination

Continue reading "Equal Pay for Equal Work" »