A Clark County jury awarded $56.5 million last week to a man who says he was beaten to the ground and knocked unconscious at a Las Vegas Strip restaurant five years ago.
Omar Alrabadi alleged in a 2023 lawsuit that he was attacked by two men in July 2021 at and outside of Chayo Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar, a restaurant inside The LINQ Promenade.
The parties that were named in the suit included Caesars Entertainment and Chayo Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar and its respective parents companies.
Alrabadi alleged that a worker put him in “harm’s way” and “incited a brawl” by pushing him toward the two men before he walked away, according to the complaint. The men chased Alrabadi through the LINQ Promenade to continue their attack.
Nearby security employees and other Caesars and Chayo employees did nothing to stop the men from attacking Alrabadi and instead helped other customers, according to the suit. When police arrived about 14 minutes after the altercation between the men and Alrabadi, all of Chayo’s security guards and Caesars’ employees denied that the altercation took place “in an effort to protect” the men who attacked him, the suit alleged.
Alrabadi’s attorneys argued that both Chayo and Caesars bear some responsibility for the attack because they failed in their duty to protect Alrabadi from violence that caused his injuries.
Caesars and Chayo “negligently and carelessly owned, operated, maintained and controlled (Chayo Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar and LINQ Promenade) to inflict bodily harm on, thereby making (the properties) hazardous and dangerous places,” the lawsuit alleged.
The jury later assigned no fault to Alrabadi for the attack, rejecting defendants’ efforts to blame him, according to court documents and Alrabadi’s attorneys.
Alrabadi’s attorneys say he was also honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy following the attack due to traumatic brain injuries he suffered. Alrabadi was also forced to abandon his engineering studies, his attorneys said.
“Omar Alrabadi walked into a Caesars property as a paying guest and was handed to the men who nearly killed him,” his attorney, Kimball Jones, said in a statement. “The jury saw what happened, and it held the people responsible accountable. No amount of money gives Omar back the future that was taken from him.”
Caesars Entertainment, which is poised to pay Alrabadi more than $28.2 million under the terms of the Friday settlement, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Attempts to reach Chayo Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar were also unsuccessful. The restaurant is poised to pay Alrabadi the remaining half of the settlement.
Contact Lucas Hellberg at lhellberg@reviewjournal.com.
