Friday, March 29, 2024

New Video Shows Blacks Forced to Prepay for Meal at Los Angeles Denny’s

*LOS ANGELES – On Monday, February 1, more commonly referred to as the first day of Black History Month, a trial is set to start in Los Angeles regarding yet another case of discrimination at Denny’s involving African-Americans.

In this case, a Black couple was forced to prepay for their meal at a Koreatown Denny’s.

The incident took place on May 7, 2014 at the Denny’s on Wilshire and Vermont in Los Angeles. Renee Hebert and Henry Williams–both African-American–placed an order but were required to prepay before getting served.  Apparently their waitress and manager were concerned over the amount of food ordered and thought they were going to dine and dash–a phrase used to describe people who come in and order food and leave without paying.

Ali Rahman, the manager of the Denny’s is a defendant in the lawsuit along with Denny’s, Inc. The restaurant where the incident occurred is a company-owned store and not a franchise.

In his deposition, Mr. Rahman admits repeatedly that he asked the couple to prepay and admits that he knew prepayment requests were not permitted under the anti-discrimination and equal accommodation policies. His reasoning according to his testimony is that he had a lapse in judgment and just wasn’t thinking.

Q. So Belkis was the server on May 7th, 2014. How many servers were on the video at that time, if you recall?
A. Three.
Q. Do you know the others’ names?
A. I don’t remember right now.
Q. And Belkis came over to you and said what?
A. Okay. So Belkis came and said that there’s two people that came and ordered a lot of food; and what else did she say to you?
A. Just so like, “What should I do? Should I send the order, or do you want to talk with them?”
Q. Okay. And what did you say?
A. Said we had two guests that are eating, and they ordered a lot of food for two people.
Q. Okay. And do you know why she told you that?
A. We have a few walk-outs, we call them, like people dump, order a lot of food, they don’t pay, and then they leave.
Q. Okay. So Belkis came and said that there’s two people that came and ordered a lot of food; and what else did she say to you?
A. Just so like, “What should I do? Should I send the order, or do you want to talk with them?”
Q. Okay. And what did you say?
A. “Okay. Let me go talk to them.”
Q. And did you go talk to them?

A. Yes.
Q. Okay. And can you describe happened? What did you say to them?
A. I just sat down, and I just how are you guys doing?” And, “You guys, ordered a lot of food, yeah, $80 of food.” So I said, “You ordered a lot of food. Would you like to make a payment before we get the food out to you?”

Denny’s has a long and rich history of racial discrimination and previously paid $54 million to settle race bias cases under a federal consent decree. Part of the consent decree required Denny’s to implement policies and procedures that prohibit Denny’s from requesting prepayment of any customers.

Click here to read the complaint.

The trial is scheduled to start on Monday, February 1, 2016 at 9:30 a.m. in Division 51 of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. The couple is represented by attorney Jonathan Kaplan of Kaplan Weiss LLP.

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