An 82-year-old Army veteran says a night at Encore Boston Harbor ended not with a jackpot, but with humiliation, a property ban, and now a federal civil-rights lawsuit. Robert M. Joost claims a security detector at the Everett casino treated metal implants in his leg like a concealed weapon, triggering a confrontation that ended with him barred from the resort. He was released without any charges, but he says the encounter on May 30 left him anxious, embarrassed, and determined to have a judge and jury say his rights were violated and to award him damages.
Court filing and who is named
Joost filed his complaint on July 9 in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, according to the docket on Justia Dockets & Filings. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs. The lawsuit names Encore Boston Harbor, the Everett Police Department, the Massachusetts State Police, and several unnamed officers as defendants.
What the complaint says happened
The complaint describes a trip to the casino entrance on May 30 that took a sharp turn at the security checkpoint. Joost says he walked through the detector, which then alarmed because of metal rods implanted in his hip and upper leg, along with other medical equipment he was carrying. According to the filing, security asked him to submit to additional screening. He became frustrated and tried to leave instead.
The lawsuit says that as Joost attempted to board an Encore shuttle to go, officers and casino security intercepted him, surrounded him, and checked his identification. Joost says he was detained while police investigated, then released about 15 minutes later without any arrest or charges. After that, he says he was informed he was no longer allowed on Encore property, according to Gambling News.
Claims and damages sought
Joost’s lawsuit accuses the defendants of false imprisonment, civil-rights violations, negligence, and infliction of emotional distress. He is asking the court to formally declare that his rights were violated. The complaint seeks $250,000 in compensatory damages, plus $1 million in punitive damages from each defendant, and it demands a jury trial, according to reporting based on the court filing by Casino.org.
Joost says the fallout did not end at the casino doors. According to the complaint, being barred from the shuttle meant he had to walk roughly a mile in bad weather to reach public transit, and he says the whole episode left him anxious and humiliated.
Officials and casino response
As of publication, the Everett Police Department, the Massachusetts State Police, and Encore Boston Harbor had not issued public comments on Joost’s allegations, according to Gambling News. The complaint itself notes that Joost was never arrested or charged in connection with the incident.
Context and legal stakes
The dispute lands in a gray zone that makes civil-rights lawyers perk up. It raises questions about how security screening procedures handle guests with medical devices and at what point a short detention by police or private security crosses over into an unconstitutional seizure.
Encore Boston Harbor is no stranger to legal scrutiny. The resort previously faced a 2019 class-action lawsuit that drew attention from regulators, as reported by The Boston Globe.
Joost’s federal complaint relies on civil-rights law that lets individuals sue government actors for alleged violations of constitutional protections. Those remedies trace back to the statute codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which provides a private cause of action for such claims, according to the U.S. Code at 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
