A Denver Nuggets fan is suing Ball Arena owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and Argus Event Staffing for not hiring enough female security guards after she was assaulted in a bathroom during a 2023 playoff game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Denver resident Kathy Kim alleges she was assaulted by two women who thought she was someone else in a third-floor bathroom at the Denver arena during the fourth quarter of the Nuggets-Lakers game on May 16, 2023.
In a lawsuit filed in Denver District Court on Thursday, Kim says she was washing her hands when two drunk women walked up to her and asked if she was talking trash. When she said she wasn’t, the women started punching her and pulling out her hair, according to the lawsuit.
A male security guard responded to the assault but hesitated because it was inside a women’s bathroom, causing Kim further harm, Kim’s lawyers from the Wheat Ridge firm Falgien Warr & Iyer wrote in the complaint.
Kim was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome, communication problems and other injuries because of the assault.
A female security guard would not have hesitated before entering the women’s bathroom, the complaint alleges, and therefore would have responded faster to the attack.
“(Kroenke and Argus) acted unreasonably by failing to do anything to ensure sufficient staffing levels, proportionate levels of male-to-female security guards, sufficient training of staff and sufficient disbursement of staff throughout Ball Arena,” Kim’s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
Representatives for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment did not respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon. Argus Event Staffing declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Kim is suing Kroenke and Argus for negligence as well as negligent supervision, training, hiring and retention.
The lawsuit also names as defendants the two women Kim said attacked her and the male security guard who broke up the fight and who was also punched in the face by one of the women. Kim is suiting the two women for negligence and civil assault and battery and the security guard for negligence.
Kim is seeking an unspecified amount of money for damages, economic loss, emotional distress and pain and suffering.
Police cited the two women for assault, according to the lawsuit, but their cases could not be located in public court records.
This is at least the second fan lawsuit filed against Kroenke in the last month. Nuggets superfan Vicki Ray filed a lawsuit against the company in April after Kroenke officials revoked her season tickets because she made “unwanted contact” with a player and referee. Ray denies those claims.
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