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A judge on Thursday denied requests by the Las Vegas Realtors and former members of its leadership team to dismiss most claims made in a lawsuit filed by the group’s former long-time CEO.
The lawsuit stems from allegations of election tampering that led to a lengthy suspension, investigation and eventual termination of Wendy DiVecchio, who says she was wrongfully terminated in January.
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DiVecchio alleged that she was unfairly investigated in a proceeding that dragged on for months and has never been shared with her or the broader Las Vegas Realtors community.
Judge Mark Denton didn’t elaborate on his brief ruling, which came 10 days after a hearing in court earlier this month.
DiVecchio’s legal team called the ruling a win and said it looked forward to deposing the defendants named in the ousted CEO’s lawsuit.
“Despite the defendant’s bid to squash this case, Judge Denton found in our favor on every count and we are very much looking forward to deposing these defendants in the near future,” Rich Dreitzler, lead attorney for Wendy DeVecchio, told Inman in a statement. “The LV Realtor’s board are still hiding behind unproven allegations and we are now one step closer to the entire truth coming out.”
The lawsuit names former Las Vegas Realtors presidents Merri Perry and Josh Campa, as well as former board members Shane W. Nyugen, Britney Gaitan, John Fleckenstein, Susan Brock, Geoffrey Lavell, Chantel Tilley, Krystal Sherry, Kathryn Bovard and Chief Operating Officer Daniel Harris.
In March, 10 of the 12 defendants in the case — all but Merri Perry and Joshua Campa — filed a motion to dismiss eight of the nine causes of action from DiVecchio’s complaint.
The defendants said in their motion that DiVecchio hadn’t provided enough evidence to support most of her claims.
“The Complaint takes a classic shotgun approach. It does not contain specific allegations that link each individual Defendant to the claim(s) asserted against him or her,” the defendants wrote.
Campa filed his own motion to dismiss the case in March.
In that filing, he argued he couldn’t be held liable for DiVecchio’s termination because he resigned from his position as LVR president Jan. 2, just after his term began and three weeks before DiVecchio was informed that she was fired.
He also said he couldn’t be held individually liable for her termination as a single member of the board of directors, and that DiVecchio didn’t provide evidence of a conspiracy by multiple people to illegally alter her contract.
“Here, the Complaint alleges that Campa was the 2024 President-Elect of LVR, meaning it is legally impossible for Campa and LVR or Campa and other LVR members to conspire,” Campa wrote in his request to dismiss the case. “Accordingly, this claim fails as a matter of law and must be dismissed with prejudice.”
The motions to dismiss referenced the investigation, but they didn’t provide any details about the investigation’s findings.
DiVecchio has denied all wrongdoing and told Inman in an interview that she has never received an explanation for why she was fired and her reputation damaged.
“I was never allowed to read that report that they did for the investigation. I was not offered a copy. I was not offered a reason that that investigation came up with for me to be let go.”
