McDonald’s was just ordered by a Kentucky jury to pay 6.1 Million Dollars in a case involving a hoax call to a local McDonald’s restaurant. The caller identified himself as a police officer and ordered a McDonald’s assistant manager and her fiance to strip search and to subsequently sexually assault 18-year old Louise Ogborn, an employee. The assistant manager was fired, charged with unlawful imprisonment and received one year of probation. Her fiance received five years in prison for sexual assault. The caller, after it had been determined that this incident was just one in a sequence of hoax calls to fast-food restaurants, was tried for solicitation of sodomy and impersonating a police officer. However he was acquitted of all charges! The victim sued McDonald’s for 200 Million Dollars.
McDonald’s’ basic defense was that it had warned employees of the hoax calls and also had general policy statements in place regarding the legitimacy of strip searches. Their duty should have ended there, emphasizing that McDonald’s as a corporate entity cannot be held liable for the failure of individual restaurant managers to exercise good judgment. But unfortunately, according to ABC’s 20/20, McDonald’s’ lawyers topped off their defense with an assessment of the victim’s psychological trauma, which in my opinion had nothing to do with the question of whether McDonald’s as a corporate entity is to be held liable:
In one of the most explosive moments from the trial, a psychologist hired by McDonald’s testified that Ogborn had “grown in some way” from the horrific incident. Forensic psychologist Alan Friedman, who was paid more than $50,000 by the fast food company, acknowledged that [Ogborn] experienced post-traumatic stress, but asserted that she has grown from the experience and is more assertive and self-reliant than she was before the 3½-hour humiliating ordeal. Friedman reportedly stated that after interviewing Ogborn and performing a number of tests on her, “It’s not the ideal way to come to new growth, but some people grow through their trauma.”
USA Today reports that the assistant manager “who led the search…[asked] for $50 million, saying she was convicted of unlawfully detaining Ogborn because of the company’s failure to warn.” The jury awarded the assistant manager 1 Million Dollars! She was also not held liable in a suit the victim brought against her and other McDonalds managers. Apparently lack of common sense, downright stupidity and, of course, blaming big corporations makes money these days.
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