‘Nasty political tricks’: LV mayoral candidate seeks to block release of lawsuit settlement with city
Las Vegas Councilwoman Victoria Seaman is asking a court to block the release of a lawsuit settlement she and her husband received after they sued the city and three contractors following a 2015 injury crash.
Attorneys for Seaman filed motions this month after the city received a public records request seeking the document. Attorneys argued that as a mayoral candidate, Seaman “anticipates” the documents will be “improperly used” to imply that the city paid for the settlement.
“Such an implication would result in damage to Plaintiff in that it would misleadingly indicate Plaintiff benefited financially from a settlement with the very City she seeks to be elected to represent — when in reality, she did not receive any funds from the City arising from this matter,” Seaman’s attorneys wrote.
Victoria and John Seaman filed suit in 2017 against the city and three contractors: Las Vegas Paving Corp., Superior Traffic Services Corp., and TAB Contractors Inc. The case was settled in 2019 and the settlement sealed.
Seaman and the city say Las Vegas did not contribute any funds to the settlement — details of who paid was not available — and Seaman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday that she is tied to a confidentiality clause that prevents her from disclosing the settlement.
“I will stand by my confidentiality and fight for it for the other parties and my husband and I,” she said. “Had the city paid even one dollar, then I would be free to release it, but they did not.”
Seaman said she and her husband were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement or be in danger of losing their settlement. “We have abided by that to protect the other parties,” she said.
Seaman and former U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley are vying to replace term-limited Mayor Carolyn Goodman in a November runoff election.
A Clark County District Court judge approved a preliminary injunction and sealing of records in favor of Seaman “until further” order. A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 21.
Serious crash
The settlement stems from an injury crash on July 10, 2015, when Seaman was a Nevada assemblywoman. Attorneys wrote that Victoria and John Seaman’s vehicle collided with an unmarked section in a road in a construction zone.
The original complaint could not be accessed in the court portal Monday, but Seaman said the crash almost killed them. She said her injuries left her bedridden for weeks, and that she underwent multiple surgeries.
The case was settled the year Seaman was sworn into her council seat.
In its court response to the restraining order, the city said it had “tendered its defense” to TAB, meaning that the company would take on Las Vegas’ defense. It said the Seamans did not dismiss Las Vegas from the lawsuit, “including through the resolution of this matter.”
Attorneys for the city argued that the Seamans’ confidentiality agreement does not extend to Las Vegas.
“The agreement provides an exception to the confidentiality provision when disclosure is required by law, which is the case here,” city attorneys wrote. “To ignore this requirement, as Plaintiff is apparently asking this court to do, would require an improper provision of the agreement requiring the parties to evade the law.”
While the city did not pay out the settlement, it kept a copy of the agreement in its public records, according to Las Vegas attorneys.
“Despite the understanding that the City paid no portion of the settlement funds, the requester again requested a copy of the Agreement on July 17, 2024,” city attorneys wrote. “As a public record maintained by the City, the City is obligated to comply with the public records request seeking the Agreement.”
‘Nasty political tricks’
The public records request was filed in July. The city said that it informed Seaman of the request as a “courtesy,”adding that Seaman’s attorneys filed motions before Las Vegas was able to release the agreement.
“These are nasty political tricks by people who support my opponent, there’s nothing here,” Seaman said Tuesday. “My opponents’ supporters are grasping for something.”
Lou Colagiovanni filed the request. He told the Review-Journal that he’s never worked for or been paid by the Berkley campaign.
“I’m not endorsing either candidate, he said. “I’m just a private citizen.”
Colagiovanni said he requested the records to explore the settlement structure.
“It’s very telling that she’s trying to block a member of the public from seeing these records,” he said. “It was never my intention to initiate this legal procedure.”
Berkley’s campaign manager Tom Letizia said in a statement that the request is an issue is between Seaman and the city, and that the court documents “speak for themselves.”
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.