Welcome to the Game

January 2009, just a few weeks after the final disposition of my termination at the Wynn but before the Hearings began with the State of Nevada, Don Stovner reached out via LinkedIn and asked me for a reference.  He called me before the request to apologize for his behavior, that he was under pressure from management to behave towards me the way he did.  He said the position was in Washington State and that he was leaving Nevada. I gave him the reference.

When I began the contract at Clearwire in June 2009, I was also pending a Hearing Date over my termination from the Wynn with the State of Nevada. Everyone I knew in Vegas told me that I would lose, that Wynn never loses a hearing and they never settle. I told every one that I was fine with that outcome, but not before I exhausted the Legal Process. I just kept responding to the communications, following the process.

From June 2009 through August 12, 2009, Don made an effort to speak to me or bring me coffee every single work day.  Without fail he stopped at my desk each day Monday through Friday.  He took me to lunch at least 3 times a week.

By the 3^rd lunch, he began telling me that the Wynn was not the only place we had worked together. It was June 2009 that Don Stovner established himself as a “CityCenter Contract Engineer on a Conference Call”that I led in 2007.

During that time, at those lunches, he would repeatedly tell me how we were going to have an affair.  That he had decided we were meant to have an intimate relationship.  

I quizzed him about the Wynn and why he intentionally made life so difficult for me. I asked him why he thought I would have an affair with a man who treated me so badly in a professional environment.  Because he made every effort to blame Jim Morrow and James Houghton for pressuring him into behaving towards me the way he did, I was immediately suspicious. 

When Jim Morrow terminated Don Stovner from the Contract at the Wynn, I was asked how it would impact my projects. I flatly told Jim Morrow, Angela Klein and James Houghton that it would have no impact because Don Stovner never replied to a single Project related email, never attended a single Project meeting, and did not submit a single Project Deliverable.  If the assigned resource never engages with the Project then there is no impact to his no longer being the assigned resource.

Don Stovner was so steadfast in his insistence that Jim Morrow told him explicitly to ignore my emails and requests for Deliverables, that he went so far as to tell that same story to the Mid-Level Management at Clearwire. Specifically, I personally heard him tell the story twice, first to Terry (something - I will look it up) and then to Dan Cowgill.

So let me be clear that I knew the game was on in June 2009.  I just had the wrong Cast of Characters.

I went to the Hearing at the end of June 2009. I had meticulously submitted all of my paperwork and continued to check on the status. When I arrived at the hearing, the Judge/Mediator did not have any of my documentation.  When I walked out of that hearing, I was sure I had lost. I even told people I felt I lost the decision.

Imagine my surprise when I received a letter from the State of Nevada informing me the Judge/Mediator had ruled in my favor. His decision was curt and to the point – that based on the evidence provided by both parties, Wynn illegally terminated my employment. While they had the right to terminate me at anytime per Nevada Labor Law, Wynn had no evidence to prove there was cause for termination. The decision not only opened the door for an Employment Lawsuit, it was practically an Invitation.

I did not want to believe Steve Koenig and Ted Whiting were the Orchestrators of the Prank.  The suspicion was swirling around in my head from the first day Don Stovner told me he was on a CityCenter Conference Call with me. I told myself there were hundreds of Consultants on the CityCenter Project and I was in meetings and conference calls on a daily basis with 50-100 people at a time. It was plausible that he was one of those anonymous consultants. The suspicion that Steve and Ted were involved didn’t become cemented until September at the San Genarro feast, when, while horsing around I said “Sucks to be you”.

“That’s exactly what you said on the Conference Call!” he exclaimed. “That pissed me off so much!”“What Conference Call?” I asked.“The City Center Conference Call!” he said.
“That was you?” I asked him.

I didn’t give any hint about the fall out or the grief I got in the 4 weeks after that call.  I certainly didn’t mention the calls I got from Steve Koenig and Ted Whiting telling me to invite the Vendor Engineers to Las Vegas for a sit down meeting. 

Ted told me to call them and ask them to come to Vegas for drinks. I did. Ted told me to tell them I would be there, to have drinks with them.  I did.

Why? Because I did whatever Steve and Ted asked me to do.

It was that weekend at the San Genarro Feast that I decided to let the House in Paradise go.  My room mate Angel was giving me grief about what I was doing with Don Stovner, and she said something that had stuck with me.

“You brought a dangerous stalker into this house and our lives, what are the people around you supposed to do? How do we remain safe?”

At the time, I remember thinking she was completely irrational and just a bit clueless – the man was already in my house. He had been there for years, and she was just now putting the pieces together? A month earlier, on August 11, 2009, I stood in the Living Room in the House in Paradise, as I was about to kick off my active involvement with the Prank and told her

“No matter what happens from this moment forward, everything I do will bring my integrity into question.”“Why are you doing it then?” she asked.“Because,” I said, “I am going to teach this man a lesson his Grandchildren will feel.”

But, she was right. None of the people in my Personal Life had any connection to the Casinos or the Wynn. They had no reason to be in the line of fire, so I did the right thing, gave into Don Stovner's pressure to move to a smaller condo closer to him and give up the House in Paradise.

Besides, he had stopped talking, and I felt if I was isolated and alone with him, he would go back to unintentionally giving me the information I needed to nail him to a cross.

In September 2009, it had only been 2 years since MGM Resorts International laid me off.  The various Non-Compete, Non-Disclosure and Trade Secret contracts I had signed were still in effect.  None of the contracts would expire until earliest 2010. I still didn’t want to believe Steve & Ted were involved. I loved working for that Business, I was happiest in that role. So to think they were behind this Prank was upsetting and left a sense of betrayal in me that dug deep.

I believed at the time, no, I wanted to believe, that Don Stovner was investigating me in preparation for the inevitable lawsuit that would follow from the State of Nevada ruling in my favor and deciding the Wynn illegally terminated me.  I made the assumption that Don Stovner’s energetic attempts to disassociate himself with Wynn and re-associate himself with a Work Environment that I actually enjoyed and liked were simply his means of keeping me off balance. I played along so well didn’t I?

Except, I didn’t sue Wynn Resorts. I never even called an attorney. Oh, but I made it look like I did. When I established my little corporation to engage in the Clearwire Contract, the office was located in a very small building on Sandhill filled with attorneys. I would go to the office once a week to check in, collect mail and use the office. So for all appearances, showing up at 10am or 2pm made it look like I was meeting with an attorney on a regular basis.

No, I decided that night in the Jacuzzi when he brought up my Military File that I was going to play the Long Game. At the San Genarro Feast, I decided to dig my heels in for the long haul.  I would wait it out, keep this stalker close at hand and patiently play along until I had enough information to go after Don Stovner and everyone who helped him along the way. The antics at the Wynn were highly personal attacks. There was no professionalism or semblance of order. Information Technology was complete chaos. The termination was personal and the ruling from the State of Nevada affirmed the unacceptable behavior. If the Game and the Prank was to upset or disrupt my life, then I would play along, gather information and do exactly what I am doing now, 4 years later. I would exactly mirror your Game and "Sing It Back to You".

Instead of suing a faceless corporation for the acts of a few bad managers, I would impact their retirement, their stock portfolios, their marriages and their families. In stead of expending energy directed at the wrong target, I would focus on strengthening the cloud of suspicion around them, making them untrustworthy, disrespected and disgraced in every single area of their lives – Professional, Personal, and especially their marriages.

Keep in mind, you decided to send a married man with a child in to this Prank. Did you really think I would have mercy just because a child was involved? Would you? Did you really think I would not squeeze out of Don Stovner all of the details I needed to participate fully in your Prank?

I Am BeachWitch. Welcome to the Game.

How to Out-stalk a Stalker
Ask your stalker to define the relationship because you need to know whether he could see the stalking leading to something more serious like marriage or at least a kidnapping.  If he hesitates tell him you really need to have a marriage date in mind so you can reserve the Wiccan Wedding Circle and arrange the paperwork for the ritual blood transfer.

What? 

You thought all that Wiccan Hand Fasting crap was real? 

That it was romantically inspired?

I got it from a web site!