Bill Harrah is whirling dirvishly in his grave at this hour as more Ben Roethlisberger-related litigation has surfaced involving the Lake Tahoe hotel-casino. This time it doesn’t involve rape allegations, however.
A former worker at Harrah’s Cabo Wabo Cantina evidently carded a woman who was with Roethlisberger during the same week of the alleged Andrea McNulty assault. After Roethlisberger complained to Harrah’s-Tahoe president John Koster about it, the employee was fired. Big Ben is costing Harrah’s a lot of money and headaches lately, no?
Alvaro Brito, the former assistant manager at Cabo Wabo, filed an amended complaint last Friday against Harrah’s and Koster, claiming he asked a woman who was with Roethlisberger if she was 21, and was later fired for it. The Cabo Wabo serves alcohol and no one under 21 is allowed in.
From the RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL:
Brito was the assistant manager of the Cabo Wabo Cantina at Harrah’s in July 2008 when Roethlisberger came in with the woman and two men, he said in the suit, originally filed Aug. 20. Following company policy and state law, he asked to see the woman’s ID, because she appeared to be underage, but they refused, and instead allegedly mocked his accent and verbally abused him, the suit said.
He called security, but they were unable to come to the restaurant, so Brito tried again, the suit said.
“This time, the man later identified as Roethlisberger handed the woman’s ID to Mr. Brito,” the suit said. “The ID indicated that the woman was 27 years of age.”
Brito thanked Roethlisberger, the suit said, and went on with his duties.
“Later,” the suit said, “Roethlisberger approached Mr. Brito at the entrance of Cabo and asked him if he knew John Koster, the president of Harrah’s.”
Brito confirmed that he knew Koster, the suit said, and then Roethlisberger “said that he was a good friend of Koster and that he would be speaking to Koster about Mr. Brito.” Brito was later told that Koster and Roethlisberger were golf partners.
Days later, Brito was told that he was “suspended” because of “what happened” with Roethlisberger. Then on July 15, 2008, Brito was called by employee relations and told he had been fired because of the “incident on Monday, July 7, 2008, with the Roethlisberger group.”
Although the Brito case may seem to be completely unrelated to the McNulty charges, it isn’t entirely. It actually gives her a bit of ammo.
McNulty had said in her lawsuit that she had heard about Brito’s firing, and feared going to the police about Roethlisberger because she thought Koster would protect him, and that she, too, would be fired.
Based on what “Koster had done to the waitress and manager at Cabo Wabo,” she said she knew that “John Koster and (security chief) Guy Hyder would protect Ben Roethlisberger and the company rather than supporting a police investigation.”
Meanwhile, as expected, Washoe District Judge Brent Adams denied motions to dismiss the McNulty case, and also refused to delete portions of McNulty’s suit that Roethlisberger’s lawyers said were “scandalous” and “improper.”
Also yesterday, a fire broke out in the forest next door to Harrah’s. Ben? Can you account for your whereabouts then?
12:16 pm on October 1st, 2009
To me this is all for money, They are scandolous, so why is it continuing, because they all know he is a prfessional and they want some of his money.
If there where fired I bet it was not because of Roethlisberger, it was because they violated policy and procedures, and for McNulty , her problem is probably because she was hitting on him and he refused and turned her down.
This is all just to get headlines in the News, and to cause problems.
1:34 pm on October 1st, 2009
Ben sure seems like a douchebag lately. Didn’t expect this BS superstar behavior from him.
2:33 pm on October 1st, 2009
Why does Big Ben look like Fred Flinstone in that pic? Disturbing!!
2:47 pm on October 1st, 2009
To proud sports mom:
you are wrong. this story, if accurate, actually shows big ben to be a big prick. and more important, makes the rape claims appear more valid. i am shocked that she now might have a case because i too thought she made it up.
time will tell of course, but so far, rothlisberger is looking more and more like an a**hole.
i know most athletes can be pricks and i dont think much of them in the real world, but ben is such a loser if this is true.
so dont blindly support rothlisberger. you dont know who brito is!!!! so dont label him guilty of wanting money. innocent until proven guilty applies to all!!!! rothlisberger, brito, AND Mcnulty.
at this time, my money is on brito as being the only decent human involved in this story.
4:56 pm on October 1st, 2009
He should be jailed, at the least, for having that ridiculous handkerchief in his breast pocket.
5:01 pm on October 1st, 2009
he never denied sleeping with Mc”horseface”, indeed he is a jerk, but the man can play some football!
5:03 pm on October 1st, 2009
as far as this new case, ben should sue his jobless ass for mentioning his name, or maybe he should rape him
5:46 pm on October 1st, 2009
Proud Sports Mom,
How do you know it’s all for money? Were you there? I have no idea what’s true and what’s fabricated, and neither do you.
In fact, the alleged incident with the bartender seems highly believable. Celebrities pull out the “don’t you know who I am” card on a regular basis. Again, I have no idea if the complaint has merit, but to just dismiss it without any knowledge of the facts is somewhat ignorant.
Stop acting like a hero worshiper and wait for the available information to surface before judging.
7:13 pm on October 1st, 2009
Come on! Somebody say it!
9:39 pm on October 1st, 2009
habias corpussss: It goes both ways. Do you know if Brito was inappropriate? Do you know if he was rude? No, you know what you are reading. People who are fired and bring lawsuits could be biased, or not. Maybe Ben thought he was not being professional when handling the situation. It will all play out.
11:52 am on October 2nd, 2009
habias corpuss, you are an idiot. So, someone being a dick about his friend being carded is more likely to rape someone. Sure, the two are related.
3:36 am on October 6th, 2009
Corp This, who cares, if he doesnt card her and she drinks and is underage he and Harrahs are in serious trouble. i used to like Ben, but I put him up there with Kobe now and that isn’t saying much.
11:31 am on October 21st, 2009
First of all just because he got bent out of shape about this doesn’t mean he’s guilty of rape! i’m netrual on this subject but people these are not facts!(refering to rape case) about this how do you know that’s what they were fired for? perhaps there was a lot of complaints against this person and one more complaint did it. trust me there are so many things that could have happened that could have gotten them canned. sounds like they got canned and wanted to place the blame somewhere so they could come up with an excuse of why they don’t have a job………mmmmmmmm i mean this didn’t even come up as an issue until she did something…….i see a pattern