A 19-year-old black woman has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against a Vancouver Spirit Halloween Superstore, contending an employee wrongly accused her of shoplifting last year when she was walking toward a cash register to pay for the bunny ears she had placed on her head.
The employee refused to allow Elizabeth Ofuasia of Vancouver to pay for the bunny ears and insisted that she and her friend leave the store, the suit alleges.
The teenager protested, offered to show the employee her see-through purse or submit to a search to prove she hadn’t stolen anything, according to her suit. Her friend made the same offer, but the staff insisted they leave.
Ofuasia walked out of the store and called Vancouver police.
When an officer arrived, Spirit Halloween staff did not seek to press charges against the 19-year-old but claimed to have video footage showing her or her friend shoplifting from the store, the suit says. The store refused to show the video to Ofuasia or her friend or to police when they arrived, according to the suit.
Instead, Spirit Halloween had police cite Ofuasia for criminal trespass, barring her from the store for one year.
Representatives from Spencer Spirit Holdings and Spirit Halloween stores didn’t respond to messages for comment.
Ofuasia and her friend had been in the Vancouver Plaza store two times earlier that day, Oct. 18. Initially, they were shopping for a body suit and left when they couldn’t find one they liked and went to Target.
After leaving Target, they returned to the Halloween store and Ofusasia bought a choker necklace. They then went to Party City to shop for additional items for their costumes and returned a third time to the Halloween store, when Ofuasia selected bunny ears, according to the suit.
“Because of the misconduct, false accusations, consumer racial profiling, threats, criminal trespass warning, and other unlawful and discriminatory actions by Defendants, what should have been a positive and enjoyable shopping experience for Plaintiff was instead a humiliating, frightening, and traumatic event,’’ Ofuasia’s lawyers Rick Klingbeil and Efrem B. Lawrence wrote in the suit.
The suit alleges the store engaged in racial discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The suit seeks up to $150,000 in noneconomic damages for the depression and embarrassment Ofuasia suffered as a result. The Vancouver woman is now fearful of entering retail stores because of potential racial animus, profiling or unfounded accusations, her lawyers wrote. The suit also seeks up to $5,000 in economic damages and unspecified punitive damages.
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
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