Friday, April 02, 2004

BANNED FROM THE BELLE

The latest news is that I have been banned from the Belle.



It seems that my public journal has sealed my fate, they don't want the bad publicity.



More on this later.

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A lot of people have been asking me, in the last 24 hours, why I think I was banned. After mulling over the telephone conversation with James in my head many times, I have come to believe I have a pretty good answer.



A few days ago, when Glen attacked me in the cardroom, I wrote about it. I was very candid about the part I played in the episode, as well. One of the things I stated in that writing, was that, "Glenn and I have been covering for Glen for a long time." I refused to do that any longer. I wrote about many incidents that have happened with Glen over the last eight months.



One of those incidents happened to be a time he touched an employee who is on probation and is very passive. At the time this happened, I was grossing out. The dealer at my table and I saw it, and started discussing it. We both thought it was inappropriate. The dealer never reported the incident. I talked to April about it, but I never told anyone else except Glenn.



I should have reported it immediately, I guess. But like Glenn says, no matter how many times we reported things over the last eight months, NOTHING was ever done. Not once. Nothing. I mean zip. It gets old to constantly report things, and be pooh-poohed away. It takes time, energy. It boggles the mind. Pretty soon, we become desensitized. That is kind of what happened in this situation. I saw Glen touching her hips and torso, and I just said, "Ewww, gross!" Both on the inside and the outside.



Getting back to the topic at hand, however, I have come to the conclusion that this is what got me banned from the Colorado Belle. Over and over again, James talked about the "touching" incident I had failed to report. Naturally he said nothing about the failure of his own EMPLOYEES to report this incident. Naturally he said nothing about the fact that the dealer and I, Steve G., were talking about this AS it was occuring. Naturally he said nothing about the fact that I counseled April about this incident after it happened. He just kept saying that by not reporting it, it must not be true, and that I must be "vindictive" to make up such a story. He kept reiterating how serious sexual misconduct is in the workplace.



Then, he was very insistent that anyone who was at the Belle the night that Glen attacked me, and came to my defense, would not be allowed to make a written statement. Their testimony would not be heard. It would be deemed null and void, due to the fact that they might have been "angry" at the way that JV was dealing and messing up hand after hand, so their testimony would be skewed.



Those two things he said over and over again keep sticking out in my mind. Of course they don't want any written testimony of Glen's attack of me. They don't want to hear anything further negative said about Glen. They have to investigate the "touching" issue, or so James told me, so why in the world would they want any other written testimony that Glen has been out of line on other occasions? That would damage him even further.



Someone on UPF who knows the corporate brass at Mandalay Bay Properties told me that he agrees. He feels the sole reason I was banned from the Belle was because in my journal I wrote about the "touching" incident. He says in these cases, "they might face significant reputational risk if the accuser is not silenced." Furthermore, he says, "if the ban is not lifted, it is completely attributed to your public accusation."



I believe he is correct.