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IN BUSINESS COURTS No matter what device you’re using, you can always access your own s---. getmygrid.com STRIP CLUBS PREVAIL IN TAXI DRIVER KICKBACK LAWSUIT By Steve Green senior staff writer A federal judge has rejected claims that Las Vegas nude and topless clubs have participated in a racketeering scheme by paying kickbacks to taxi drivers who bring them customers. US District Judge Lloyd D. George granted dismissal motions filed by eight adult clubs that were sued in 2009 in what class-action attorneys at the time called a scheme in which taxi companies were accused of extorting commissions from the clubs totaling $40 million over the years in order to deliver customers to them. Attorneys later dropped the taxi companies from the lawsuit, saying the adult clubs were at fault. Now, the entire thesis of a racketeering scheme by anyone has been rejected by the judge. The suit seeking class-action status was filed on behalf of Southern California resident and Las Vegas tourist Theodore Trapp by attorneys led by Jay Edelson of Chicago. The suit charged Trapp got into a cab at Caesars Palace in January 2009 and asked to be taken to the Play it Again Sam club on West Spring Mountain COURTS LAS VEGAS ATTORNEY IN HOA, DRUG PROBE SUES INSURER By Steve Green senior staff writer Las Vegas construction defect attorney Nancy Quon is suing an insurance company in hopes of blocking it from participating in a criminal investigation of her. Quon’s attorneys with the law firm Alverson, Taylor, Mortensen & Sanders filed the suit on her behalf in District Court in Las Vegas against State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. Quon, believed to be a target of a federal investigation into corruption involving homeowner associations and construction defect lawsuits, was indicted along with her boyfriend in April on drug charges after surviving a fire at her home in October. Thursday’s lawsuit says that after the October 27-28 fire, Quon on March 1 submitted to a 4 1/2-hour examination under oath at the request of State Farm, which has reserved its rights under Quon’s policy to deny coverage for fire damage because of suspicions the fire may not have been accidental. State Farm is insisting Quon submit to an additional examination or examinations that have nothing to do with Quon’s claim for fire damage, but “instead appear geared toward the district attorney’s investigation,” the lawsuit alleges. The county grand jury that indicted Quon on the drug charges heard testimony about the fire, but didn’t indict her in the fire. “State Farm has forced, and is continuing to force, plaintiff to choose between her Fifth Amendment rights and giving a statement by asking questions of plaintiff that were not, and are not, necessary to the investigation of plaintiff’s claims,” the lawsuit charges. The suit seeks a court declaration that State Farm is no longer entitled to additional examinations of Quon, or that she is entitled to State Farm’s investigative materials and evidence should more examinations take place. Road, but instead was diverted to the nearby Spearmint Rhino club by the driver, who said Spearmint Rhino was a better club but did not disclose he would receive a kickback and a higher fare for taking Trapp there. In his order dismissing the lawsuit against Spearmint Rhino and seven other adult clubs, George wrote that the clubs were also accused of recovering kickbacks to drivers, typically of $100, by charging higher cover charges, by selling low-quality liquor represented to be premium liquor, by watering down drinks and falsely stating amounts owed by customers and using force or intimidation to collect those amounts. But George ruled that Trapp and his attorneys had failed to allege a single instance of illegal activity to support the racketeering allegation. “Trapp has not alleged sufficient facts to permit an inference that, in charging an admission fee and paying taxi drivers, any of the defendant adult nightclubs committed a crime. Trapp concedes that it is not illegal for an adult nightclub to either charge an admission fee or to pay a cabdriver,” George wrote in his ruling.