{"id":310127,"date":"2024-02-09T07:10:52","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T13:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=310127"},"modified":"2024-02-09T12:04:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T18:04:31","slug":"steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Wynn’s False Rape Defamation Case Against AP Dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nevada Supreme Court has tossed Steve Wynn\u2019s defamation suit against the Associated Press (AP), the AP reports. The case stemmed from a February 2018 AP news story alleging sexual misconduct that turned out to be false.<\/p>\n

\"Steve
Steve Wynn, above, argued Halina Kuta\u2019s claims against him were so outrageous the Associated Press should have known they were false. (Image: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The article reported a woman\u2019s claim that Wynn had raped her in the 1970s in Chicago and that she gave birth to their daughter in a gas station restroom. At the time, Wynn was facing several allegations<\/a> of sexual misconduct toward female Wynn Resorts workers, which he denies.<\/p>\n

The AP article was based on an interview the woman, Halina Kuta<\/a>, gave to police. Wynn argued the report defamed him because some of the claims in Kuta\u2019s account were so outrageous that the AP should have known they weren’t credible. He also accused the news agency of omitting details that would have cast doubt on the veracity of her account.<\/p>\n

Outrageous Claims<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In an affidavit<\/a> given to Wynn\u2019s lawyers later that year, Kuta appeared to be delusional. She claimed that she had been the model for Picasso\u2019s Le Reve<\/em>, an artwork Wynn owned at the time, which was painted in 1932, 10 years before she was born. She claimed Wynn had stolen the painting and other famous artworks from her.<\/p>\n

She also claimed to have been married to Wynn in the 1960s and that she bore him other children, but she couldn\u2019t remember their names.<\/p>\n

Kuta\u2019s past social media activity suggests she also believed herself to be the mother of Paris Jackson, the daughter of the late pop singer Michael Jackson.<\/p>\n

In March 2020, a lower court judge ruled that Kuta defamed Wynn, awarding the billionaire a nominal $1 in damages.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a separate trial, the judge determined the AP had practiced \u201cfair reporting\u201d that had been in the public interest at the time. Las Vegas District Judge Ron Israel noted that the AP had received a heavily redacted copy of Kuta\u2019s police interview that omitted some of her more fanciful claims.<\/p>\n

Anti-SLAPP <\/strong><\/h2>\n

On Thursday, a panel of Nevada Supreme Court judges cited Nevada\u2019s anti-SLAPP laws in dismissing the case.<\/p>\n

A SLAPP, or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, is a case in which the plaintiff litigates in a bid to silence, intimidate, or censor their critics.<\/p>\n

Nevada\u2019s anti-SLAPP statutes were designed to limit precisely the type of claim at issue here, which involves a news organization publishing an article in a good faith effort to inform their readers regarding an issue of clear public interest,\u201d<\/strong> the judges wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wynn’s lawyer, Todd Bice, said they were \u201cconsidering all options.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nevada Supreme Court has tossed Steve Wynn\u2019s defamation suit against the Associated Press (AP), the AP reports. The case stemmed from a February 2018 AP news story alleging sexual misconduct that turned out to be false. The article reported a woman\u2019s claim that Wynn had raped her in the 1970s in Chicago and that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":273481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,60],"tags":[89814,83617,89815,86275,81940],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSteve Wynn Defamation Case Against AP Dismissed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nevada Supreme court dismisses defamation case over 2018 Associated Press report of false rape claim by woman, Halina Kuta.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Steve Wynn Defamation Case Against AP Dismissed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nevada Supreme court dismisses defamation case over 2018 Associated Press report of false rape claim by woman, Halina Kuta.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-09T13:10:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-09T18:04:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wynn-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1296\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/\",\"name\":\"Steve Wynn Defamation Case Against AP Dismissed\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wynn-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-09T13:10:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-09T18:04:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Nevada Supreme court dismisses defamation case over 2018 Associated Press report of false rape claim by woman, Halina Kuta.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wynn-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wynn-1.jpg\",\"width\":1296,\"height\":730,\"caption\":\"Steve Wynn. The gaming company bearing his name will pay $70 million to plaintiffs that brought a securities fraud suit against it. (Image: Getty)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Crime & Scandals\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Steve Wynn’s False Rape Defamation Case Against AP Dismissed\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Steve Wynn Defamation Case Against AP Dismissed","description":"Nevada Supreme court dismisses defamation case over 2018 Associated Press report of false rape claim by woman, Halina Kuta.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Steve Wynn Defamation Case Against AP Dismissed","og_description":"Nevada Supreme court dismisses defamation case over 2018 Associated Press report of false rape claim by woman, Halina Kuta.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2024-02-09T13:10:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-09T18:04:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1296,"height":730,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wynn-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/","name":"Steve Wynn Defamation Case Against AP Dismissed","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wynn-1.jpg","datePublished":"2024-02-09T13:10:52+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-09T18:04:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Nevada Supreme court dismisses defamation case over 2018 Associated Press report of false rape claim by woman, Halina Kuta.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wynn-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wynn-1.jpg","width":1296,"height":730,"caption":"Steve Wynn. The gaming company bearing his name will pay $70 million to plaintiffs that brought a securities fraud suit against it. (Image: Getty)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/steve-wynns-false-rape-defamation-case-against-ap-dismissed\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crime & Scandals","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Steve Wynn’s False Rape Defamation Case Against AP Dismissed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310127"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310205,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310127\/revisions\/310205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}