Two black men in Texas are suing Walmart for racial discrimination and false arrest, alleging they were charged with robbery and handcuffed by police after attempting to return a television set.
Attorneys for Terence Richardson and Dennis Stewart said their clients were arrested at a Walmart store in Conroe, a Houston suburb, in September 2020 despite showing employees a TV receipt.
“A white Walmart employee working at the customer service desk accused Dennis of stealing the TV, refused to accept the TV in return or change it, and called police claiming Dennis and Terence had stolen the TV. television, “the lawsuit, filed Thursday in the southern Texas District, states. “Police showed up, arrested and handcuffed Dennis and Terence in front of the store where other customers of the store were watching as they entered and left the store.”
The lawsuit states that Stewart bought the 58-inch TV last year. After taking the product home and realizing it wasn’t working properly, he asked Richardson to help him transport the set to the Walmart store, according to the complaint.
After releasing the men, Walmart employees had Richardson and Stewart sign a document promising they would not return to the store, according to the lawsuit. Stewart is a former police officer in Montgomery County, Texas, while Richardson is a pastor.
The process was first reported by the Courthouse News Service.
A Walmart spokesman said Friday the company is aware of the incident. “We do not tolerate discrimination and take allegations like this seriously,” the retailer said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch. “When the claims were brought to our attention in April of this year, we investigated them. We are not going into further details given the litigation and we will respond to the court as appropriate.”
“Scared and embarrassed”
The lawsuit does not name any Walmart employees allegedly involved in the incident, but claims they were white. Richardson and Stewart seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Stewart paid $ 301 for television, according to the lawsuit.
The men also sue Walmart for intentionally inflicting emotional distress, gross negligence and breach of contract. The lawsuit alleges Walmart employees arrested the two men and refused to release them until they signed the document promising not to return them.
“It was at this point that Dennis, an older man in his 50s, started crying and asking for answers,” the complaint states. “I was scared and embarrassed.”
Stewart’s case in Conroe comes nearly a decade after a similar incident in Humble, Texas. In 2012, Humble resident Henry Daniels sued Walmart and two employees to accuse him of stealing a vacuum cleaner. In this case, Walmart employees allegedly called police and then physically forced Daniels into the back of the store to interrogate him.
A sheriff in Harris County ended Daniels’ clarification of any wrongful offense and Walmart apologized, KPRC reported at the time.