The family of a man who died after being punched outside a downtown Las Vegas nightclub has filed suit against the establishment and the business’ security company. The lawsuit, filed in late April 2019 by the family of Luis Campos, who died at the age of 45, argues that employees for the Vanguard Lounge and Saber Security “failed to intervene” in the attack.
Campos was attacked early on the morning of April 30, 2017, as he was standing in line outside of Vanguard Lounge. He was in town for his brother’s bachelor party. His attacker, James Beach, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison in 2018. Authorities say the attack on Campos was completely unprovoked, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
In their lawsuit, the family of Campos claims that Vanguard and its security company, Saber Security, failed to intervene in a verbal altercation that sprang up between Campos and Beach. The fight escalated until Beach punched Campos in the face, causing him to fall on the ground. Campos, a Californian, died four days later. According to a Clark County coroner’s report, he likely hit his head on the ground in the fall, leading to fatal injuries.
Campos’ brother, Drake Garibay, spoke at the sentencing hearing for Beach, saying he was with his brother outside Vanguard on that fateful night. Garibay called the attack “unprovoked,” saying his brother said nothing to Beach prior to the punch. “He didn’t even get a chance to say anything,” Garibay said. “It wasn’t even like they squared up. My brother turned his head, he didn’t say one word, and [the assailant] struck him.” But Garibay also expressed outrage at the hearing:
"We’re all going to die, but I think what makes it worse is how we die. My family and I have been dealt a life sentence of pain, torment and suffering. Meanwhile, this piece of trash gets the luxury of a plea deal. For what?"
A father of five, Campos would never awake from his coma.
The assailant, Beach, identified only as “an intoxicated male” in the family’s lawsuit, had several previous run-ins with the law. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder and battery with a deadly weapon, resulting in substantial bodily harm for a fight between two groups of men in Las Vegas. He was imprisoned for five years and then released in 2014.
At Beach’s sentencing hearing, District Judge Douglas Herndon expressed disbelief at the defendant’s predatory behavior. “It is unfathomable to me,” Herndon said. “It is unconscionable. There wasn’t any kind of fight or anything. You just decided to punch this guy as you’re walking past him on the sidewalk.” Beach apologized for his attack on Campos. His attorney, Gregory Knapp, called it a “terrible accident and unfortunate event.”
But the Campos family’s new lawsuit places much of the blame on Vanguard Lounge, claiming the nightclub failed to provide guests and customers with adequate security. “Despite years of documented violent criminal activity at or near Vanguard Lounge,” the complaint reads, “defendants intentionally and / or knowingly failed to adequately staff, train, monitor, supervise and secure its premise and sidewalk.”
Neither Vanguard Lounge nor Saber Security have provided comment at this time.
