LAS VEGAS — Nevada’s unemployment office has been ordered by the state’s highest court to release records of audits used to determine that sex workers in legal brothels are employees rather than independent contractors.
An attorney representing the operator of the Love Ranch in Lyon County, Nev., is fighting the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation’s claim that courtesans at the brothel are employees and that it must pay unemployment insurance and provide them with other benefits.
Love Ranch’s operator, Sierra National Corp., also faces a claim by the unemployment department that it owes a “substantial” tax liability to the state’s unemployment fund for previous years. The brothel, among others in the state, was once led by the late Dennis Hof.
Love Ranch’s four-year-old dispute with the unemployment department hinges on the theory that the state agency was “well aware” of the Love Ranch's classification of the courtesans as independent contractors because they rent space.
In a ruling made by Nevada justices several weeks ago, the court upheld a decision in favor of Love Ranch’s operator, which requested access to the unemployment department’s audit of Love Ranch and other licensed brothels in the state.
Love Ranch, through attorney Anthony Hall, also sought all communication between unemployment department staff in its petition.
But Hall was rebuffed with his request after the department’s chief lawyer called the requested information confidential and “proprietary” and that Love Ranch’s motivations were to “simply to delay and frustrate the case going forward and the administrative law judge’s ability to declare those workers employees.”
Justices, in a unanimous ruling, agreed with Love Ranch and Hall over its petition for the disclosure of records.
“Of paramount importance in any public records case is the policy underlying the Nevada Public Records Act,” Nevada justices wrote in their 6-0 decision. "The purpose of the [act] is to further the democratic ideal of an accountable government by ensuring that public records are broadly accessible, which promote[s] government transparency and accountability.
“Because the request here expressly excluded any records that would reveal a person's or employing unit’s identity and the district court did not compel disclosure of any records beyond those requested, we affirm the district court's order granting the petition for a writ of mandamus.”
With the records now ordered to be handed over to Love Ranch, Hall can build his case that the brothel’s courtesans were independent contractors in previous years and that its operator is not liable for back unemployment taxes.
Hall noted to the Nevada justices, and they took judicial notice, that the unemployment department’s own board of review issued an order in December 2016 indicating its view that Love Ranch's tenants are independent contractors, not employees.
“The Love Ranch avers that despite conducting audits of the Love Ranch and affiliated brothels over the years, [the department] did not object to the classification of the tenants as independent contractors, nor did it assert that contributions should be made into the state unemployment fund based upon the tenants' earnings,” court records said.
Nevada’s brothel industry is big business in the Silver State. It serves about 400,000 clients, generating about $35 million and $50 million, according to a 2012 study.
Since mid-March, all brothels in the state have been closed due to the pandemic. Tomorrow, Gov. Steve Sisolak will announce a “Roadmap to Recovery” plan for Nevada, perhaps hinting when the state’s legal brothels can reopen.
Pictured: Catrina Costa outside the Love Ranch in Lyon County, Nev. (Wikimedia Commons)
