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A judge on Thursday denied requests by the Las Vegas Realtors and former members of its leadership team to dismiss most claims made in a lawsuit filed by the group’s former long-time CEO.

The lawsuit stems from allegations of election tampering that led to a lengthy suspension, investigation and eventual termination of Wendy DiVecchio, who says she was wrongfully terminated in January.

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DiVecchio alleged that she was unfairly investigated in a proceeding that dragged on for months and has never been shared with her or the broader Las Vegas Realtors community.

Judge Mark Denton didn’t elaborate on his brief ruling, which came 10 days after a hearing in court earlier this month.

DiVecchio’s legal team called the ruling a win and said it looked forward to deposing the defendants named in the ousted CEO’s lawsuit.

“Despite the defendant’s bid to squash this case, Judge Denton found in our favor on every count and we are very much looking forward to deposing these defendants in the near future,” Rich Dreitzler, lead attorney for Wendy DeVecchio, told Inman in a statement. “The LV Realtor’s board are still hiding behind unproven allegations and we are now one step closer to the entire truth coming out.”

The lawsuit names former Las Vegas Realtors presidents Merri Perry and Josh Campa, as well as former board members Shane W. Nyugen, Britney Gaitan, John Fleckenstein, Susan Brock, Geoffrey Lavell, Chantel Tilley, Krystal Sherry, Kathryn Bovard and Chief Operating Officer Daniel Harris. 

In March, 10 of the 12 defendants in the case — all but Merri Perry and Joshua Campa — filed a motion to dismiss eight of the nine causes of action from DiVecchio’s complaint.

The defendants said in their motion that DiVecchio hadn’t provided enough evidence to support most of her claims.

“The Complaint takes a classic shotgun approach. It does not contain specific allegations that link each individual Defendant to the claim(s) asserted against him or her,” the defendants wrote.

Campa filed his own motion to dismiss the case in March.

In that filing, he argued he couldn’t be held liable for DiVecchio’s termination because he resigned from his position as LVR president Jan. 2, just after his term began and three weeks before DiVecchio was informed that she was fired.

He also said he couldn’t be held individually liable for her termination as a single member of the board of directors, and that DiVecchio didn’t provide evidence of a conspiracy by multiple people to illegally alter her contract.

“Here, the Complaint alleges that Campa was the 2024 President-Elect of LVR, meaning it is legally impossible for Campa and LVR or Campa and other LVR members to conspire,” Campa wrote in his request to dismiss the case. “Accordingly, this claim fails as a matter of law and must be dismissed with prejudice.”

The motions to dismiss referenced the investigation, but they didn’t provide any details about the investigation’s findings.

DiVecchio has denied all wrongdoing and told Inman in an interview that she has never received an explanation for why she was fired and her reputation damaged.

“I was never allowed to read that report that they did for the investigation. I was not offered a copy. I was not offered a reason that that investigation came up with for me to be let go.”

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The vice president of the Appraisal Institute, a professional association of real estate appraisers, was voted out of his leadership position on Wednesday, less than two weeks after an exposé highlighted allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation against him.

The New York Times reported that the 28-member board of directors voted by a two-thirds majority on Wednesday to oust Craig Steinley, who served as the institute’s president in 2023, from his role as vice president.

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The vote followed a May 8 report by The Times that exposed allegations that Steinley had groped women without their consent. Steinley stepped away from his role following the initial report, which sent the institute into turmoil as it debated how to move forward before voting to remove him.

The Times found that Steinley was named in a May 8 wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former Appraisal Institute CEO Cynthia Chance, who accused Steinley of groping her and making lewd comments about her.

Separately, Alissa Akins, the Appraisal Institute’s former director of education and publications, sued the association on March 28, alleging she was fired from her job in December in retaliation for exposing problems with the administration of licensing exams used by state regulators.

The swirling allegations sent the institute into a crisis response that culminated in Steinley’s ouster on Wednesday night.

Steinley has denied the allegations, and the institute itself “categorically and whole-heartedly denies that it has at any time engaged in fraudulent or retaliatory conduct,” in its administration of licensing exams or in its dealings with Akins.

Steinley’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday morning.

A web page that earlier this month listed Steinley as the organization’s vice president no longer includes him as of Thursday morning.

Through a statement shared by his attorney, Craig Capilla, Steinley told The Times on Wednesday evening that the decision to remove him was “a deliberate act of retaliation driven by internal politics.” 

The original exposé was written by The New York Times‘ Debra Kamin — whose 2023 exposé of allegations of sexual harassment at the National Association of Realtors led to the resignation of NAR President Kenny Parcell. The latest investigation included details from interviews with 12 women “who said they have had uncomfortable interactions with Mr. Steinley.”

Kamin, who interviewed more than 20 appraisers and former Appraisal Institute staff members, obtained a confidential legal settlement in which the association paid $412,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim by former Chief Financial Officer Beata Swacha.

The Appraisal Institute maintains that allegations it ignored Akins’ warnings about its examination processes or retaliated against her “are not true, and we will fight this lawsuit in court.”

In her March 28 complaint, Akins said that after being hired in February 2024, she discovered that due to inconsistent updates of minimum passing scores that vary by state, the Appraisal Institute had in some years mistakenly passed students who failed, and in other years failed students who passed.

A rescoring of a random sample of 300 Appraisal Institute exams found at least 17 percent had been scored incorrectly — raising the possibility that hundreds of people were wrongly certified as appraisers — or were told they’d flunked exams they’d actually passed, Kamin reported.

When Akins discovered the issue and put forward a plan to correct it, the Appraisal Institute “refused to take action or make any of the suggested improvements,” her lawsuit claims. So Akins “demanded that her signature be removed from the certificates evidencing successful completion of a course, including passing the course exam.”

Akins claims in her suit that she was told if she did not resign, Steinley “will make it hell for you as long as you stay” and that she was fired when she refused.

In seeking to dismiss Akins’ lawsuit in a May 2 filing, attorneys for the Appraisal Institute said her complaint “fails to state any claim upon which relief may be granted,” and that even if proven, her allegations “are inadequate to allege fraud.”

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The village that is home to the house where newly selected Pope Leo XIV grew up said Tuesday that it planned to take ownership of the dwelling, either by buying it or through its eminent domain power.

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The 750-square-foot home was slated to be auctioned off to the highest bidder in a private, sealed bid auction scheduled for June 18.

But attorneys for the village of Dolton came out with a strong message on Tuesday: Don’t bother bidding.

“The Village intends to work with the Chicago Archdiocese and other agencies to allow the home to be viewed and visited by the public as a historic site,” according to a letter sent by attorneys for the small village to the company handling the auction.

The auction of 242 East 141st Place is being handled by Paramount Realty USA, which is offering bidders the chance to “Own a Sacred Piece of History.” 

“Born Robert Francis Prevost, Pope Leo XIV made history as the first American pope upon his election in May 2025,” Paramount Realty USA wrote in its description. “His childhood home is being offered for sale via private auction. Located in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, this modest brick home was owned by the Prevost family for nearly 50 years and served as the foundation of a life that would lead to the Vatican.”

The minimum, all-cash price for the home is $250,000 plus a 10 percent buyer premium.

The home was bought a year ago for $66,000 and substantially updated by a suburban investor who couldn’t immediately be reached on Wednesday. After renovation, the investor-owner put the home on the market in January for $219,000, Crain’s Chicago reported. The price fell to $199,000 in February before it was taken off the market after the pope was elected.

Paramount Realty USA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Steve Budzik, the broker handling the home sale, declined to comment.

Louis Prevost sold the home in October 1996, according to state records shared as part of the due diligence process for potential bidders.

Under Illinois law, local governments have the power to take private property for public use if they pay fair compensation to the owner.

“Please inform any prospective buyers that their ‘purchase’ may only be temporary since the Village intends to begin the eminent domain process very shortly,” the village attorneys’ letter said.

The attorneys told Crain’s Chicago that the eminent domain plan came at the direction of newly elected Mayor Jason House, who was elected May 5, three days before the new pope’s election put the house in the national crosshairs.

The attorneys told the news outlet that, if the village doesn’t buy the property, any would-be buyer would be blocked from using it as anything other than a single-family house, noting it sits within an area zoned for single-family residential.

“We don’t want it to become a nickel-and-dime, ‘buy a little pope’ place,” the attorney told Crain’s.

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Airbnb went dark in New York City. Now, it’s facing the possibility of going dark in Spain.

In response to an acute housing shortage and amid tension with tourists, Spain’s High Court affirmed an order requiring the short-term rental platform to remove nearly 66,000 listings in the country, a ruling Airbnb has vowed to appeal.

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The court affirmed a ruling by the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption, and the 2030 Agenda, which ordered Airbnb to block more than 65,000 listings on its platform. The government considers the short-term rental listings to be illegal. 

The rulings come amid a broader effort by Spanish leaders to crack down on illegal tourist accommodations, the nation said. 

The ruling is a blow for the leading short-term rental platform as it seeks to grow its market share overseas amid tepid demand in the U.S., and as it seeks to grow its highly profitable business internationally. 

The high court ordered Airbnb to immediately remove 5,800 listings, a number that was later lowered to just under 5,000 after the company showed a number of listings were in compliance with regulations.

But the Directorate General for Consumer Affairs said the country justified the removal of the more than 65,000 Airbnb listings in the country because the ads don’t include a license or registration number; they don’t indicate whether the owner is a professional or an individual; or they include inaccurate license numbers.

Airbnb said that the ruling wouldn’t take immediate effect, and that it would appeal.

The action was a departure from past rulings, including by the Spanish Supreme Court, which ruled in 2022 that individual hosts were responsible for making sure to provide accurate and necessary information on the listing.

Airbnb has said that short-term rentals account for a miniscule amount of total housing in markets that have enacted stringent regulations, like Barcelona and Amsterdam. 

In 2023, tens of thousands of Airbnb listings were removed from New York City as part of a crackdown on short-term rentals in the Big Apple. The company has said such regulations are a boon for the hotel industry, which has seen prices soar in New York City after the regulation took effect.

“No evidence of rule-breaking by hosts has been put forward, and the decision goes against EU and Spanish law, and a previous ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court,” an Airbnb spokesperson said in a statement. 

Instead of cracking down on tourist housing options, the spokesperson said, Spain should focus on building more housing to meet existing demand.

“The solution is to build more homes – anything else is a distraction,” the spokesperson said. “Governments across the world are seeing that regulating Airbnb does not alleviate housing concerns or return homes to the market – it only hurts local families who rely on hosting to afford their homes and rising costs.”

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