Dairy Queen
RICHLAND CO. – Another high-profile restaurant has been sued in Richland County civil court…but this time, it’s not over food.
Dairy Queen in Olney has been named as the respondent in the filing, which was made by a former employee, Kiyah Brown.
But unlike the last restaurant in town to be sued (El Rancherito, in 2015, by one Christopher Campbell), this filing isn’t about choking on a piece of food.
Instead, it’s about alleged bullying and intimidation, which the plaintiff, Brown, is claiming is endemic in the place.
Incident dates back two years
Brown is being represented by Roger White in the first L (Law) filing of the year (2017).
Court documents show that the case was brought by Brown “for injuries sustained while she was a minor in Richland County.
“On January 2015,” the narrative reads, “Brown was one of several people who was subjected to intimidation, ridicule, assault, and hazing as both an employee and non-employee of Dairy Queen that was allowed and witnessed by several people throughout the course of a year.”
The narrative continues by stating that the attacks came from Heather Kilgore, an assistant manager at the restaurant and apparently the live-in of Eric Luther; both Kilgore, 30, and Luther, age unavailable, are named individually in the suit, as “agents” of Dairy Queen.
Kilgore, it’s alleged in the documents, “would corner the employees at work, cuss and yell at Brown, belittle her in front of other people and patrons of the restaurant, use her authority as an adult to hang out with Brown during non-work hours or related times and disclose issues of illegal drug and sexual activities with her partner and owner of Dairy Queen, Eric Luther.”
Luther, documents show, was “made aware of this inappropriate behavior by Brown and her mother on numerous occasions, but turned a blind eye toward the abuse, even after one of the last incidents reported January 22, 2015.”
Shows more problems at ERHS
Eric Luther and Heather Kilgore
Factual allegations are that Brown was employed at DQ in the winter of 2015.
“On January 22, 2015, Kiyah Brown was attending school at East Richland High School (ERHS), while she was injured from another student grabbing her by the neck and putting her in a headlock,” documents state. “Brown was scheduled to work at Dairy Queen that day after school until close.”
The documents further lay out that Brown contacted Kilgore to inform her of the incident and advise that she’d be late to work due to having a doctor’s appointment for the incident. Brown’s mother, Renae Brown, called to confirm the appointment and was informed that the doctor at Weber Medical Clinic couldn’t see Kiyah until the next day (Jan. 23) at 10:30 a.m.
Since Kiyah Brown had left school early on Jan. 22 because of soreness from the attack at school earlier in the day, she then advised that she’d be unable to work that night, telling Kilgore this.
Apparently she did this by text; documents show that Kilgore texted Kiyah Brown back and told her that she “needed to find someone to work for her,” which Brown did, but was unable to find anyone.
Kilgore than informed Brown that she was “able to work.” She also stated that if Brown didn’t come to work, Kilgore herself would have to cover the shift and “there would be consequences” to this.
Kept from school, work, by doc
Brown went to the doctor’s appointment on the 23rd, and the doctor took her off school and work until Monday, January 26. The doctor issued a note to this effect and Renae Brown took that note to Dairy Queen and told the manager if anyone had any questions, they should contact her.
Kilgore, documents show, received the note “and began to harass Kiyah through text and phone call, yelling at and degrading Kiyah.”
So Renae Brown went into DQ on or around Jan. 24, 2015 and informed Luther that Kilgore, his girlfriend and manager, was threatening, harassing and yelling at Kiyah about not being able to work.”
Luther at that point apologized to Renae Brown, informing her that “the situation was not being handled properly and that he would talk to Heather about this behavior and in the past, things like this had been reported” about Kilgore, but had been dealt with.
When Kiyah Brown returned to work as scheduled on Tuesday, January 27, 2015, she was called into Kilgore’s office.
Court documents state that Kilgore “grabbed Kiyah by the shoulders in a forceful manner and pulled her into the office before Kiyah could walk into the office.” At that point, Kilgore “began to yell at Kiyah about ‘being her boss’ and that her mother ‘could not interfere with work or their friendship.’”
Kilgore is then alleged to have called Renae Brown and “screamed at her while Kiyah was in her office, and yelled profanities at Kiyah in front of her co-workers and customers.” Kilgore “then stood up and made aggressive hand gestures towards Kiyah and told her to get the f*^k out or go back to work.”
Brown asked if she could just go home for the night; another manager told her she could and that they had her shift covered.
The final paragraph of the narrative states that Kilgore had “disclosed to Kiyah about personal issues and exposed Kiyah to certain things outside of work.”
Emotional distress
On the basis of these statements, two counts are alleged on a civil level.
The first is Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress.
To that point, it’s alleged that Kilgore had a duty to refrain from acting with extreme and outrageous conduct towards Brown;
That Eric Luther, as the sole owner of DQ in Richland County, had a duty to protect his employees and patrons from being engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct;
That Dairy Queen and Luther had a duty to know that from previous complaints that his manager, Kilgor, was combative, threatening and physical and that her continued employment was highly likely or he knew would inflict severe emotional distress on Kiyah Brown;
And that Kilgore, despite that duty, engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct by yelling, cussing, threatening, making aggressive hand gestures, telling personal issues and exposing Kiyah Brown to other activities she knew was highly likely to inflict severe emotional distress on Kiyah Brown or intended her conduct to cause severe emotional distress.
It’s that emotional distress that’s the basis for that count, and Brown is asking for a judgment against the defendants of $50,000 as relief.
Escalating to violence
A second count is that of Battery, outlining the physical nature of the alleged incident on January 27, 2015.
“Kiyah Brown showed up to Dairy Queen” on that day, the documents state, “and was asked by Kilgore to come back in the office. Brown reluctantly moved towards Kilgore’s office, but before she was able to get inside her office, Kilgore grabbed Brown by the shoulders forcefully and pushed her into her office.”
It outlines the rest of the incident by stating that Kilgore began to threaten Brown while standing next to her aggressively shaking her fist at her, calling her names and cursing at her.
Interestingly, the documents at this point state that Luther “has notice of Heather Kilgore’s temper and was aware from other patrons and employees that Kilgore was verbally and physically violent toward people,” but “failed to act to protect Kiyah Brown by continuing the employment of Heather Kilgore,” whom, it’s alleged, “intended to cause and did cause a harmful contact with Kiyah Brown with the knowledge that Kiyah had her neck injured the week prior.”
As a direct and proximate result of Kilgore’s conduct, Brown is claiming she suffered neck and back pain extreme mental anguish and physical pain.
She also claimed she was unable to work for a period of three months afterwards.
So under this count, Brown is asking for a judgment against the defendants in excess of $50,000.
The case was filed January 20, within the two-year statutory limit. As such, there hadn’t been any first hearing date set, nor any response from the defendants, as they have several weeks to file a response.
How much violence in Richland goes unaddressed?
While some may think such cases are, if not frivolous, then at least superfluous, there’s a developing theme with this and with the case filed against the school (featured in both January editions): There seems to be alleged violence going on in Richland that goes unaddressed by public officials put in place to contend with it, and people are left with no recourse but to file civilly.
Granted, former prosecutor David Hyde was in office when the incident alleged in the Kiyah Brown filing occurred, and Hyde was wont to handle certain reports county-wide. However, current prosecutor Brad Vaughn took over several months after this alleged incident occurred. It’s unclear whether a report was ever made to either prosecutor for consideration of criminal charges, in either the Kiyah Brown case, or the incident that took place at the school in late 2015 involving two feuding teens who clashed on the parking lot of the school…and later ended up in civil court.
It’s also unclear whether any police report was generated about the incident in school that initially injured Kiyah Brown prior to her run-in with her former boss, Kilgore.
Neither Kilgore nor Luther have any criminal history in the area; it’s unclear whether complaints have been lodged against Kilgore in the past.
When the issue develops in court, more information about all of the above may come to the fore.