A 21-year-old woman is suing Caesars Entertainment and the Flamingo Las Vegas, alleging that security failed to stop a man with a lifetime trespass ban and a history of run-ins at Caesars properties before he stalked and assaulted her early one morning in March 2024. The woman, identified in court filings as Jane Doe, was celebrating her birthday in Las Vegas when the attack occurred in an isolated area by the escalators at the Flamingo.
The lawsuit names Dutch Yonko as the perpetrator, according to KSNV, which reports Yonko had been released from prison less than a month before the March 2024 assault, per the Nevada Department of Corrections. He later pleaded guilty to sexual coercion and received a sentence of 24 to 60 months, according to court documents cited by the station.
Attorney Kimball Jones of Bighorn Law, who represents Jane Doe, said the plea deal did not match the evidence he believed showed rape and that the incident caused his client significant psychological and emotional turmoil. Jones also criticized Caesars' legal position, which argued the incident and resulting damages were caused or contributed to by the plaintiff's own negligence, saying that stance suggests the victim was responsible for the assault.
Hours of Warning Signs Before the Attack
The lawsuit alleges Yonko had three criminal-related incidents at Caesars properties, including a drug-related incident, and had been trespassed for life from all Caesars properties before the March 2024 assault. Court filings describe him being documented prowling at Caesars Palace near the convention center in the early morning hours, and surveillance video reportedly showed him lingering at the Flamingo far longer than he should have been that night, recorded playing in a fountain, going through ashtrays, and removing his shirt overnight before he spotted Jane Doe around 4:45 a.m. and moved her into an isolated area by the escalators, per the lawsuit's allegations.
Jones said Yonko should have been entered into Caesars' facial recognition system, which would have flagged his presence given the lifetime ban. Under Nevada Revised Statutes 651.015, hotel and casino operators are statutorily immune from civil liability for injuries caused by non-employees unless the wrongful act was legally foreseeable and the property failed to exercise due care, according to Justia Law. Under that same statute, a third-party criminal act is considered legally foreseeable if prior similar wrongful acts occurred on the property that the owner knew about, which is central to the plaintiff's argument given Yonko's documented history at Caesars properties.
Formally issuing a lifetime trespass warning, often called “86ing” a person, permanently revokes their legal permission to enter any property operated by that casino company, meaning any later entry is itself a criminal act, according to Somuchpoker. Biometric security platforms deployed across Las Vegas resorts allow facial recognition systems to match camera feeds against internal watchlists of trespassed individuals and alert security staff in real time, according to Biometric Update. The lawsuit's focus on that technology raises the question of whether an automated alert existed and, if so, whether it was acted on before the assault.
Part of a Pattern of Suits Against Caesars
The Flamingo case is not the only recent lawsuit challenging Caesars' security and duty-of-care practices. In September court filings, the family of a man killed at a Caesars resort alleged the company failed to maintain adequate safeguards to deter illegal sex work and associated violent crime on resort grounds, according to KSNV News 3. In February, a separate negligence lawsuit accused Caesars of breach of care after staff allegedly arranged a rideshare instead of dispatching emergency medical services for a guest experiencing a fatal medical crisis, as Hoodline previously reported.
Jones' firm has taken on Caesars before. In August, a Clark County jury awarded $56.5 million to a naval veteran represented by Jones after finding Caesars Entertainment and a resort restaurant liable when security failed to intervene during a violent attack on resort property, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Caesars also agreed in November 2025 to pay a $7.8 million settlement to the State of Nevada following regulatory investigations into property oversight and compliance failures, as Hoodline reported at the time.
Legal analyses of Clark County premises liability cases show that courts weigh security guard staffing levels, lighting, camera monitoring, ignored complaints, and prior property incidents in determining whether a resort owner met its legal duty of care, according to Sam & Ash Injury Law. Nevada law also imposes a strict two-year statute of limitations on personal injury and negligence lawsuits from the date of the incident, meaning the case's late-2026 trial timeline lines up with the March 2024 assault, per the statute.
The trial in Jane Doe's case is expected to begin in November, according to KSNV. News 3 said it was waiting for comment from Caesars Entertainment as of publication.
