Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson.
An attorney preparing to take the deposition of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson says Las Vegas Sands is lying about the attorney’s conduct in a previous deposition.
In a dispute over where Adelson’s deposition will be taken in an overtime lawsuit filed by a former personal driver for Adelson, attorneys for Las Vegas Sands this week said Las Vegas attorney Donald Campbell didn’t want to do it in the casino billionaire's office on the Las Vegas Strip because during a previous deposition there, "it was a 'total zoo' with various interruptions, including an armed personal security guard who allegedly intimidated Mr. Campbell."
A Las Vegas Sands spokesman added that during the previous deposition, "Mr. Campbell lost his temper during the deposition and attempted to throw books at Mr. Adelson. At that time, security was asked to monitor the remainder of the deposition."
Campbell’s law firm, Campbell & Williams, denied that story on Wednesday.
"This account is, in a word, a lie," said a filing by Campbell & Williams attorney Philip Erwin.
His filing said that in reality, upon arriving at the deposition, Campbell "was given a `dressing down’ by Adelson" and that Adelson falsely claimed Campbell and his clients were late for the deposition.
With the deposition constantly interrupted by Adelson proposing and answering his own off-topic questions, taking phone calls and vacating the deposition for hours at a time, Adelson attempted to misdirect the focus of the discussion to Singapore, when the case involved Macau, Irwin’s filing said.
Irwin, who filed a DVD with the court to back up this account, said "Adelson directed a staff member to place a 30-pound stack of books on the table directly in front of Campbell while he was asking Adelson questions."
"After Campbell removed the 30-pound stack of books to the floor, Adelson instructed him to get up, pick up the books and place them on a table in the back of the room. When Campbell declined, Adelson summoned an armed bodyguard," the filing said. "As the court can plainly see, Campbell never lost his temper and never assaulted Mr. Adelson in any way."
As to the main issue of where the deposition will be taken, Campbell wants to conduct the deposition at Campbell’s office, while attorneys for Adelson are asking that it be held at Adelson’s office or the secure federal courthouse in downtown Las Vegas.
"In light of Adelson’s conduct and the rank mendacity of his unnamed spokesman who publicly smeared Campbell’s professional reputation, it would be highly inappropriate to force plaintiff and his counsel to conduct the deposition at Adelson’s corporate office," the filing said.
Irwin’s filing also said Adelson’s attorneys are mistaken in calling Campbell’s office a "home" lacking security.
In fact it’s a professional office occupied only by the Campbell & Williams law firm with state-of-the-art security features and has been the site of legal proceedings involving numerous CEOs of publicly-traded companies, celebrities and government officials, the filing said.
"There has never been any security-related incident," the filing said.
"Defense counsel have also conveniently neglected to mention that since the time Mr. Adelson’s deposition was taken in his executive suite, he has attended two separate depositions at the law offices of plaintiff’s counsel that cumulatively lasted over 20 hours," Irwin’s filing said.
"Adelson’s supposed concern over security is nothing but a fiction designed to accord him special treatment in this litigation," the filing said.
And while Adelson’s attorneys have proposed the federal courthouse as an alternative in part so they can quickly summon a judge to resolve any disputes, Irwin’s filing said: "Plaintiff is not approaching this deposition with the preconceived notion that intervention from (a judge) will be necessary to complete the deposition."
U.S. Magistrate Judge Carl Hoffman has not yet ruled on the dispute over the deposition location.