Steven Jacobs expands legal battle to federal court as Sands renews call to kick judge off ex-Macau chief’s case

Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Steven Jacobs are still lock in a bitter legal fight, and nobody is giving an inch even after almost six years have passed since Jacobs was dismissed from his post as CEO of Sands China in 2010.

On Tuesday, the Las Vegas-based casino operator renewed its efforts to have Nevada District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez kicked off from overseeing a case filed by Jacobs in 2010 on grounds that she has shown “outright hostility” to Sands Corp., Bloomberg Business reported.

This isn’t the first time Sands Corp. called for Gonzalez’s disqualification. In December 2015, the casino operator requested to disqualify the district judge after she made news when the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which was bought by Sheldon Adelson’s family, reported that several of “its reporters had been sent to her courtroom to monitor her as she handled non-newsworthy cases.”

The casino operator claimed Gonzalez “interjected” herself into the media coverage of the Review Journal, but the court’s Chief District Court Judge David Barker denied Sands’ request on grounds that the company was “unpersuasive” in its arguments.