L.V. nightclub accused of secretly filming burlesque dancers gets arbitration against 2 of 6 accusers

By Chris Kudialis

Friday, Sept. 23, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Four female dancers who performed a burlesque show at a nightclub at Mandalay Bay have won a preliminary legal victory in a 2015 suit alleging that owners secretly filmed them dressing or undressing for their job, and then distributed the images.

The Nevada Supreme Court on Wednesday granted the motion that the case should not go to arbitration before it goes forward in district court. But the court ruled that the claim of two other women should go to arbitration before it could be processed in the district court.

Las Vegas showgirls Michelle DiTerlizzi, Burgundy Candace Kirtz, Monica Alexandra Klus, Sophia Monica, Megan Herbert and Plamena Mihaylova said managers at 1923 Bourbon and Burlesque, a leased venue at Mandalay Bay, watched secret recordings of them and other women in their dressing room over a period of five months from April to August 2014, according to the lawsuit.

The suit was filed last year against Fat Hat LLC., doing business as 1923 Bourbon & Burlesque by Holly Madison, and Ice Lounge Las Vegas, where the dancers also performed. Also named in the suit is J.F. Saves Investment Inc., Robert W. Sabes, Avi Kopelman, Noel Bowman and Robert Frey.

The court documents allege that the corporations and managers who ran the venue filmed, transmitted and disseminated images of the women naked and changing costumes without knowledge or consent from any of them.

Sabes, Bowman, Kopelman and Frey secretly placed a digital video recorder capable of storing 17 days of film in the women’s changing room in August 2014, court papers said. The videos were then streamed to the men’s computers.

Kopelman, the then-manager of 1923 Bourbon and Burlesque, kept his office door open, so any employee could have also seen the dressing room feed, according to the lawsuit. Court documents said Kirtz and the show’s stage manager, Andrea Benitez-Moody, found out about the camera after they saw videos of themselves on Kopelman’s office computer.

The women believed they had a "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their changing room, the court documents said. Only female employees were allowed in the dressing room, and they said they made sure anyone wanting to enter knocked and received permission.

Despite the show’s title as a burlesque, the women never performed topless, the filings said.

Wednesday’s Nevada Supreme Court decision was over independent contracts between the venues and the women, and whether they signed off on an agreement requiring arbitration before going through the court system. The court ruled that DiTerlizzi, Kirtz, Klus and Monica did not sign off on a specific authorization for the arbitration provision — but that the signatures of Herbert and Mihaylova, both cocktail waitresses who joined the lawsuit two weeks after the initial defendants filed in February of last year, were valid and that their cases should go to arbitration.

Reached on Thursday, Las Vegas attorney Jessica A. Green of Lipson Neilson Law Firm, who is representing the six plaintiffs, declined comment. Attorney Jared Khan of JK Legal & Consulting did not return a call for comment on behalf of the defendants.

Sun reporter Cy Ryan contributed to this report.