Career thief wins $1.732 million from Isle Waterloo (Iowa Caesars property) after security fails to stop fellow patron attacking him after theft of player points
From all appearances, 37-year-old Montana Gunhus is a scumbag and a thief.
In 2018, Gunhus, his girlfriend, and two methy friends committed burglaries in Washburn, Iowa to fund their drug habit, and were eventually arrested for it.
https://townsquare.media/site/725/fi...jpg?w=980&q=75
Four years after his methy burglaries, Montana Gunhus is a fairly rich man -- and it was all thanks to another act of thievery.
In January 2021, Gunhus was at Isle Waterloo, which is now a Caesars property due to the 2020 merger with Eldorado Gaming. At the time, they had not yet converted their rewards program to Caesars Rewards.
Gunhus, then 35 and still plenty willing to steal from people, saw an opportunity. He found a car sitting inside an empty slot machine, where its previous player had accidentally left it behind. It belonged to a woman with the last name Williams. He found that it had "Fan Club points", which are similar to Rewards Credits.
Gunhus then went around Isle and spent about $100 in Fan Club credits from the card. It is not clear where he spent them, or how he was able to do so without showing ID, but I have noticed that some Caesars properties have outlets which don't always ask for ID when using Rewards Credits.
Williams noticed the Fan Club credits missing a short time later, and told her husband, Damond Jamahl Williams, who was 44 at the time. They both went to security, who pulled up the records of the machine Williams was last playing, and then pulled security footage to find who grabbed the card. In the footage, they found Gunhus had grabbed the card, so they went walking around the casino looking for him.
Security stupidly brought Damond Williams along for the search. When they located Gunhus and started questioning him, Williams decided to take the matter into his own hands. He came up behind Gunhus and punched him, knocking him to the ground. In just 25 seconds, he pounded Gunhus with 15 punches and kicks, causing major damage to his facial structure, and blinding him in one eye. This all occurred right in front of security!
So why did they let Williams continue to pound Gunhus for 25 seconds after he was knocked down literally right in front of security's face? Isle had a "non-intervention policy" when it came to fights between patrons! Can you believe that?! I'd never have guessed such a policy existed.
Well, Gunhus decided to sue Isle Waterloo for two reasons:
1) They let the angry Damond Williams come along with them during their investigation, rather than leaving him behind and informing him of the results afterward
2) They let Williams beat him up without intervening
Gunhus was awarded $1.732 million in a jury trial, which just concluded on October 31, 2022.
Isle tried to claim that Gunhus, at the very least, had comparative liability, where the plaintiff is said to share some blame for what occurred. For example, if I were to walk up to a really big guy at a bar and say, "You're a pussy, your girlfriend is hideous, and I know you're a bitch who won't do anything about my saying this", and then he attacked me and caused me a lot of harm, I could sue him. However, his attorneys could claim I had comparative liability by instigating the fight in the first place, and thus his client should not be judged 100% at fault for the damage which occurred to me. In many states, if I were to be found to have comparative liability, my degree of fault would be assigned a percentage, and then I would only be entitled to that percentage of any damages from the incident. This concept is often used when determining who pays for car accidents which occur between two or more parties.
Anyway, in this case, Isle claimed that Gunhus had comparative liability because he stole Williams' wife's Fan Club credits, and Williams' attack on him only occurred as a reaction to his own crime. Jurors considered this claim, but rejected it, stating that Gunhus had 0% liability in this matter. (This actually surprises me, as I would have said that he did have some liability here.)
Isle also tried to claim that they had no liability at all because Williams was not associated with their casino in any way, and this was simply a patron attacking another patron. They claimed that Williams did not act like he was a threat, so they did not feel it was incorrect to bring him along while they tracked down Gunhus. Regarding why they didn't stop the attack, their attorney Mark Thomas said that the casino’s non-intervention policy is standard for similarly sized casinos in the Midwest.
The jury did not buy any of these claims.
Williams is charged with willful injury causing serious injury, and is currently the subject of a bench warrant after missing a court date in August 2022. I'm guessing he bounced, and may have left the state.
