Guests Say Caesars Palace Defamed Them

LAS VEGAS (CN) - A couple who sued Caesars Palace, claiming their 5-year-old daughter found a used condom in their hotel room and put it in her mouth say the hotel's spokesman defamed them by telling a newspaper that the lawsuit was "curiously similar" to another one filed against a different hotel.

Jacqueline and Gerald Kilcoyne, of Scotland, sued in 2006 on behalf of their daughter, Caitlin, seeking unspecified damages.

Alberto Lopez, a spokesman for the hotel's parent company, Harrah's Entertainment, was quoted in a July 22, 2006 Las Vegas Review-Journal article, disputing the allegations and commenting that the lawsuit was "curiously similar" to another filed in 2003 against the Rio Hotel and Casino, another Harrah's property.

The Kilcoynes claim the hotel was negligent in hiring Lopez, and "should have trained (him) on how to talk to the media."

Aside from the embarrassment, "loss of enjoyment of life" and the physiological damage they say Lopez's comment caused, the Kilcoynes say they also suffer a "loss of consortium," adding that before the article ran, Gerald Kilcoyne "was capable of participating in his marriage with ... Jacqueline Kilcoyne in all aspects."

But now, both have lost "the care, society, companionship, support and consortium of each other," the lawsuit states.

The Kilcoynes seek unspecified damages. They are represented in Clark County Court by William Kapalka.

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