BECKLEY – A Black man accuses a former employer of racial discrimination.
David H. Shelton, who lives in Raleigh County, filed his complaint in federal court against Townley Manufacturing Company, which is based in Florida but does business in West Virginia.
According to the complaint, Shelton was hired by Townley in August 2018 as a sandblaster through a temporary staffing agency. He says he was the only Black person employed at the facility managed by David Creed, who is white.
Shelton says Creed subjected him to continuing string of unwelcome, hostile, offensive and racists statements and actions.
Those actions included gesturing as if he was going to hit the plaintiff, saying Shelton would not get a Christmas bonus because “he would just use it to fund his crack business,” saying Shelton couldn’t be seen at night unless he smiled and saying a table Shelton was building would “just wind up in the hood.”
Shelton also says Creed suggested if they went hunting together, it would be like a movie called “Surviving the Game” in which white men hunted a Black man with dreadlocks like those of Shelton.
He also says Creed told Shelton to get “off your ass and on your feet” the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2019, adding “Martin Luther King Day if over. Get to work, boy.”
He says assistant manager Mike Osborne only encouraged Shelton and Creed to work together and get along rather than discipline Creed.
On February 8, 2019, Shelton says Creed again made racist, derogatory and offensive comments in a verbal exchange with Shelton. He says Osborne also told Shelton to go home for the rest of the day rather than discipline Creed.
“Osborne told plaintiff that he was making Creed go home for the day as well, but later when plaintiff drove back past the workplace, Creed’s automobile was still located at the site,” the complaint states. “Plaintiff then realized that, instead of supporting him when victimized by Creed, defendant punished plaintiff by sending him home and gave the offending employee, Creed, either the same punishment plaintiff received for tolerating Creed’s abuse or no disciplinary action at all.”
By failing to take action to protect the plaintiff, Shelton says the defendant constructively discharged him that day.
On April 11, 2022, the West Virginia Human Rights Commission issued a Notice of Right To Sue to Shelton.
Shelton says Creed’s actions created a hostile work environment. He accuses Townley of unlawful racial discrimination in violation of Title VII, federal law and the West Virginia Human Rights Act.
He seeks compensatory damages for lost wages including front and back pay, lost benefits, emotional distress, humiliation and mental anguish. He also seeks punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
In its answer, Townley denies the allegations and seeks to have the case dismissed.
Shelton is being represented by Paul W. Roop II of Roop Law Office in Beckley. Townley is being represented by Gene W. Bailey II of Hendrickson & Long in Charleston.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 5:22-cv-00287