CHARLESTON – A Charleston man blames a McDonald’s franchisee after he was stabbed by an employee in the restaurant restroom.
Anthony Woods filed his complaint January 26 in Kanawha Circuit Court against J.W. Ebert Corporation, which owns the McDonald’s restaurant located in Elkview.
On January 17, Woods went to McDonald’s, ordered his food and then went to the restroom. Employee Richard W. Thornton followed Woods into the restroom and stabbed him multiple times in the face and neck with a knife. Thornton was arrested a short time later at a nearby convenience store and charged with malicious wounding and robbery with a deadly weapon. He had Woods’ wallet and other personal belongings when he was arrested. Woods was found by other customers and rushed to Charleston Area Medical Center.
Thornton already was on probation-ordered mental health treatment for attempted malicious wounding of emergency service personnel following a 2019 incident along Interstate 79 when he tried to stab two EMS workers. Then, he had been found by deputies near the old Herbert Hoover High School and indicated he was high on meth and possibly bath salts. He was being transported to CAMC when he broke free from restraints in the ambulance.
“A simple Google search would have alerted McDonald’s to the fact that Richard Thornton was not fit to hire” Ben Salango, one of the attorneys representing Woods, told The West Virginia Record. “Instead, McDonald’s ignored its obligations to the public and hired a violent and dangerous employee to work in its restaurant.”
According to the complaint, a look into Thornton’s background would have revealed he was unfit to work around others and posed a foreseeable risk to harm or injury to other co-workers and third parties.
“Defendants J.W. Ebert Corporation failed to conduct a reasonable investigation into Richard W. Thornton’s background and, instead, hired Richard W. Thornton as an employee despite the reasonably foreseeable risk of harm or injury he posed to others at all relevant times,” the complaint states.
Woods says the defendant company failed to conduct a reasonable investigation to determine Thornton’s fitness and risk of harm or injury to others, negligently hired and retained him and failed to reasonably supervise him.
Woods says he sustained physical pain and suffering, mental anguish and suffering, annoyance and inconvenience, emotional distress, loss of capacity to enjoy life, medical expenses, lost wages and future physical impairment.
He seeks compensatory and punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
“I am extremely disturbed by this behavior and am grateful to those employees who took action and called for medical assistance,” restaurant owner John Ebert said in a statement at the time of the incident. “My organization has no tolerance for violence of any kind. We took swift action, and I can confirm this individual is no longer employed by my organization. We are fully cooperating with the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office in their investigation.”
Woods is being represented by Salango of Salango Law in Charleston and by L. Lee Javins II, D. Blake Carter Jr. and Taylor M. Norman of Bailey Javins & Carter in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 23-C-75
