Ousted kiosk operator sues county for $3 million

While Clark County claims that Gary Naseef's coffee kiosk business at McCarran International Airport was evicted because it didn't meet the requirement for minority ownership, Naseef's attorney said the ouster was a calculated attack that warrants a $3 million award.

During opening statements in the civil trial in District Judge Michael Cherry's courtroom, the attorneys tried to explain their contrary views to the jury that must sort through a contractual quagmire that let Naseef operate for nearly three years.

Mitch Cobeaga, who represents Clark County, and Paul Hejmanowski, the attorney for Host Marriott Services Corp., said that extensive leeway was granted to keep Naseef and his wife, Jackie Turner, in business between 1995 and 1998.

But their Las Vegas Gourmet Coffee Corp. never gained the necessary certification as a "disadvantaged business enterprise" as was always the requirement and eventually the plug was pulled, according to the lawyers.

The couple won the contract because Turner is black, but she could never prove she owned more than half of the business nor that she was the one in charge, as required by law. Federal regulations require 10 percent of airport concessionaires to be owned by minorities or women.

Naseef's demise came in an ugly divorce that left him with majority ownership of the coffee kiosk concession.

But Naseef's attorney, John Peter Lee, argued Tuesday that Naseef had been led to believe he would be allowed to operate the concession without DBE certification.

And when it became clear he was going to be ousted, a county official ran off potential buyers, Lee added.

"Nobody at the airport likes Gary," Lee said. "He was abused by people with tremendous might. Host Marriott and the county beat a little corporation to death."

Cobeaga countered that they actually "bent over backwards to help Naseef."

He and Hijmanowski charged that Naseef deceived the airport by claiming Turner was the majority owner when a side deal specified they were equal partners.

Then, as they were engaged a bitter divorce, Naseef stated in Family Court documents that Turner only owned 39 percent and he was always the one in charge of the company, Hijmanowski said.

At the end of the divorce, Naseef was given the company in exchange for $120,000, which has not yet been paid.

While the county's Department of Aviation runs McCarran, Host Marriott controls the airport's concessions and is responsible for ensuring minority owned business have a share of the lucrative trade.

Hijmanowski said that over the three-year period, Gourmet Coffee missed deadline after deadline to show it had received the necessary DBE certification, but county officials urged Host Marriott to grant extensions.

Although permission was given in 1995 for Gourmet Coffee to open two kiosks, it wasn't until 1996 that the first -- and only -- kiosk was in operation.

Hijmanowski said that in the end Naseef tried to restructure his corporation and bring in minority partners, but the deals never materialized and the restructuring only involved "cosmetic changes" that never won DBE certification.

In early 1998, an attempt to evict Gourmet Coffee resulted in Naseef filing bankruptcy, but the bankruptcy judge later allowed the eviction and Gourmet Coffee was out of business in April 1998.

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