An ex-Starbucks regional manager was awarded $25.6 million after claiming she was wrongfully terminated following the arrest of two Black men in a Philadelphia store in 2018. An award of $25 million in punitive damages and $600,000 in compensatory damages was handed down to Shannon Phillips this week after a jury found race played a part in her termination, as reported by Phillips’ attorney, Console Mattiacci Law, who shared an article from Law360 on Facebook.
In April 2018, two men, Donte Robinson, and Rashon Nelson, met for business at the coffee shop and made no purchases. They were then escorted outside and arrested. In an earlier report about the incident, Nelson stated that he asked to use the restroom immediately after entering the store in April 2018 but was informed they were only available to paying customers, so he “left it at that.” He said an employee approached them and asked them if she could help with anything before the police arrived and subsequently arrested them. An online clip of the arrest went viral, resulting in boycotts and an apology from the company as a result.
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Phillips claimed in the lawsuit that she refused to place an uninvolved White manager on administrative leave and lost her job less than a month after refusing to comply, according to the outlet. Phillips was asked to suspend the store manager after allegations that black managers of the stores were paid lower salaries than white managers. However, Phillips maintained that district managers do not have a say in employee compensation, the Associated Press reported of the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that the company was attempting to punish White employees to prove to the community that they had responded correctly to the incident. Laura Mattiacci, Phillips’ lawyer, said in her closing statement that following the 2018 arrests going viral, the company wanted a “sacrificial lamb.”
As reported by Law360, the company denied Phillips’ allegations and claimed they were looking for a manager capable of showing strength and resolve in crises. According to the AP, Phillips’ attorney cited testimony from a previous district manager who claimed she was beloved by her employees. Moreover, the attorney told the New Jersey Law Journal that she would seek about $3 million in compensation for lost wages and roughly $1 million in her fee application, reported AP. In 2018, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson blasted the arrests of the two men as being “reprehensible” and “wrong.”
