CHARLESTON – A Black woman says she was a victim of racial discrimination at a Little Caesar’s restaurant in Charleston.
Shaunte Jones filed her complaint August 8 in Kanawha Circuit Court against VDM Management Group and Genesis 4.
According to the complaint, Jones walked into the Little Caesar’s location on Patrick Street on April 8 to purchase a pizza for her son. When she went to the counter, a store employee asked for her name. She provided her first name, placed the order, paid for the pizza and waited inside the store.
When another employee came out with a pizza, Jones says he looked at the pizza box and looked at her strangely. Jones asked if it was her pizza, and he said it was. She took the pizza and left.
“Later that evening, at home, she noticed that an order sticker was affixed to the top of the pizza box that referred to her as ‘black hood girl’ instead of her name,” the filing states. “Plaintiff called in to report her complaint to the store, but the worker she spoke to told her that she would have to call in to talk to the district manager on a different day.
“When she called back and spoke to that manager, he did not have an explanation for her and did not offer any apology.”
Jones said being called a discriminatory and racist description rather than her name has caused emotional distress, embarrassment and humiliation. She says the defendants’ acts were willful, wanton, malicious and carried out with reckless disregard for her legal rights.
Jones says she suffered emotional and mental distress, humiliation, anxiety, apprehension, embarrassment, depression, aggravation, annoyance, inconvenience and loss of capacity to enjoy life.
She accuses the defendants of negligence, racial discrimination in violation of the West Virginia Human Rights Act and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Jones seeks a declaratory judgment, a permanent injunction ordering the defendants to cease and desist from engaging in such action again, an order directing defendants to provide additional training about racial discrimination. She also seeks compensatory damages, consequential damages, incidental damages, punitive damages, court costs, attorney fees, pre- and post-judgment interests and other relief.
She is being represented by Kristina Thomas Whiteaker of The Grubb Law Group in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 23-C-675
