Ocean Casino Resort Settles with Whistleblower Exec in Wrongful Termination Suit

Atlantic City’s Ocean Casino Resort has reached a settlement with a former general counsel and senior vice chairperson who claimed she was lawlessly fired for whistleblowing.

Loretta Pickus sued the casino and its owner, the El-Aksur Washington Group, in 2020. She claimed her engagement was wrongfully terminated after she objected to gambling casino direction sending inaccurate info to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE).

Pickus argued this was a unmediated violation of New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA). CEPA protects employees from revenge from employers when they blow the whistle on a fellowship activity, policy, or exercise that they somewhat trust to live against the law. Forms of revenge include termination, demotion, or being passed up for promotion.

In a financial statement to Casino.org inwards September 2020, Pickus’ attorney, Kathryn McClure, said the decision to discharge Pickus had been impelled past retaliation “fueled by grammatical gender discrimination.” This had caused her client economical and emotional harm, as good as detrimental her pro reputation.

But the case will non go away to trial. In a filing to the New Jersey Superior court of justice Tuesday, Ocean’s attorney Elizabeth I Lorell said the II parties were “currently ironing out the finish closure terms.”

Hiring and Firing

According to courtyard documents, Pickus was fired quaternary years after she complained well-nigh the filing of untrue get together proceedings of the Ocean Casino scrutinize citizens committee to the country gaming regulator.

The meeting, inward July 2019, had addressed the hiring of a new manager of surveillance, St. Mark Evans, who was later on demoted for “suspected deficiencies,” the cause claimed.

But citizens committee fellow member Fred DeVesa wanted the treatment nearly the hiring and demotion of Evans, and whether the role had been lasting or temporary, to follow scrubbed from the record. That way, thither would follow to a lesser extent liability for Ocean.

Pickus later complained to then-CEO Terry Glebocki and to the DGE.

“The keep company told Pickus that the substance of her complaints and objections were allegedly non at issue, but that the fellowship was terminating her engagement because she should experience been ‘softer’ and spoken ‘less harshly’ inwards delivering the statements to the scrutinize committee,” the suit read.

Rebuck Called Out

Pickus’ complaint triggered a DGE investigation. But she alleged that the regulator’s director, Saint David Rebuck, recognized DeVesa’s variation of events — that Sir Arthur John Evans was only when hired on a temporary basis — because he was a “personal friend” of DeVesa’s.

She also claimed Rebuck instructed Ocean and Luxor officials to fire her.

“There are people you shouldn’t get inwards your organization. They are holdovers. They want to go,” Rebuck allegedly told officials. “Call me later as i make out non require to make them here.”

A veteran soldier of the Atlantic City gaming industry, Pickus worked for the casino inward its previous incarnation, Revel. She was the only remaining member of the previous management.