Harrah’s worker wants Roethlisberger suit dismissed

August 19, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A former Harrah’s employee has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of raping another worker and alleges that managers of the Lake Tahoe hotel-casino covered up the assault.

Stacy Dingman, the former director of hotels at Harrah’s, is one of nine defendants named in the lawsuit filed last month in Washoe County District Court. She said she is the former best friend of the woman who claims the two-time Super Bowl winner raped her during a celebrity golf tournament in July 2008.

The 31-year-old woman said in her civil suit that when she reported the incident to Harrah’s security, she was told she was overreacting and that she should not pursue a complaint, partly because Roethlisberger is friends with John Koster, president of Harrah’s northern Nevada operations.

The woman’s lawsuit claims Dingman and Koster were among those who conspired to cover up the alleged incident. The suit seeks a minimum of $440,000 in damages from Roethlisberger, at least $50,000 in damages from the Harrah’s officials and an unspecified amount of punitive damages.

Brad Johnson, a Reno lawyer representing Dingman, said in the motion filed Monday that there is no evidence or witnesses to support any of the allegations in the lawsuit. The Reno Gazette-Journal first reported the latest filing on its Web site Tuesday.

“Despite her apparent dissatisfaction with her co-workers’ purported failure to act in response to her claims, [the plaintiff] tellingly failed to report the allegedly incident to police, failed to file any criminal charges against Roethlisberger, failed to file for worker’s compensation benefits and even failed to inform her own family of the purported incident,” the motion said.

“Now, in addition to pursuing her purported assailant a year after the claimed sexual assault occurred, [the plaintiff] has unjustifiably dragged Dingman, her former best friend, into this baseless lawsuit,” it said.

Cal Dunlap, a Reno lawyer who represents the woman accusing Roethlisberger of rape, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.