A woman has been awarded $1 million (£800,000) after a racist petrol station worker repeatedly refused to serve her.
Rose Wakefield, 63, from Portland, US, went to fill up her car at Jacksons Food Store in Beaverton, Oregon, US, in March 12, 2020 but was told by employee Nigel Powers "I don't serve Black people."
Instead he opted to serve other drivers and when Ms Wakefield asked for his assistance he told her "I'll get to you when I feel like it," according to her lawyer Gregory Kafoury.
Employees are required to fill up for motorists at petrol stations in Oregon's larger population centers including Portland and the nearby suburb of Beaverton.
Rosie arrived at the store to fill up her car but was repeatedly ignored by a racist employee (nbcnews)However, Mr Power refused and CCTV video from the petrol station shows the 63-year-old go inside the store to ask for help.
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Another employee came out and filled up her car up but when Ms Wakefield asked why the employee refused to help her when, he said: "I don't serve black people."
She told KGW: "I was like, What world am I living in? This is not supposed to go down like that. It was a terrible, terrible confrontation between me and this guy."
The shocking incident happened at Jacksons Food Store in Beaverton, Oregon (nbcnews)During the following week, Ms Wakefield complained twice to managers, but her phone calls were largely disregarded, Mr Kafoury said.
Mr Powers was fired a month later after corporate records showed he had been written up several times for talking on his mobile phone, Kafoury said.
"Ms. Wakefield originally was just going to let this go," Kafoury said. "She told her friends that it was too disturbing, and she didn't want to deal with it.
"And then she thought about it and said,It's too wrong. I have to do something about it.' "
Lawyer Gregory Kafoury said Rose complained twice to managers, but her phone calls were largely disregarded (nbcnews)The Multnomah County jury awarded Ms Wakefield $1 million (£807,000) which included punitive damages of $550,000 (£483,000).
Jacksons Food Stores said in a statement the company has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind.
"And that it respectfully disagrees with the jury's ruling because "our knowledge does not align with the verdict."
"After carefully reviewing all facts and evidence, including video surveillance, we chose to take this matter to trial because we were comfortable based on our knowledge that the service-related concern actually reported by the customer was investigated and promptly addressed," the statement said.
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The company didn't elaborate, but Mr Kafoury said the employee was never questioned by the company about the racist comments and was disciplined only for failing to serve customers in the order of their arrival.
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