Posted: Thursday, August 28, 2008 12:00 am
PORTLAND (AP) - A federal jury has awarded $19 million to four former salesmen for a New York-based automobile dealer after ruling they were victims of racism at work.
Carlos Barfield, Marcus Arnold, Jahaeel Hardy and Kent Paul sued in 2006 after they said managers and other workers at the Thomason Toyota dealership in suburban Gladstone encouraged racist remarks that management failed to stop.
The verdict Wednesday was against the dealership's former owner, the New York-based Asbury Automotive Group, which bought a majority stake in Thomason and its nine new-car dealerships in 1998.
The dealership is under new ownership and called Toyota of Gladstone.
Asbury sold the dealership before the lawsuit was filed in 2006.
Company officials and its lead Portland attorney did not return calls seeking comment.
Keith Dozier, co-counsel for the four men, said the verdict was a triumph of the jury system.
"You can't come into the state of Oregon and treat people badly and make money off them and expect that you're not going to get caught,'' Dozier said.
Several witnesses claimed that a supervisor repeatedly described himself as a "redneck'' and threatened to put a bullet in the head of anyone who complained.
"Am I the only redneck here?'' one Thomason employee reportedly said. "All I do is take Viagra and redneck pills every morning.''
Another employee "talked about how his parents are rednecks and they don't like blacks and they used to burn crosses,'' according to witness statements.
Another dealership employee used racist epithets, according to witness statements.
A dealership employee intentionally steered a white customer away from one of the plaintiffs because the customer "was a redneck and didn't want to deal with him because he is black,'' according to witness statements.
The four plaintiffs, who are black, claimed they lost car deals because of their race.
A witness for the dealership owner said management took steps to combat racial harassment, according to court papers.
The Thomason Auto Group in 2001 paid 11 former employees $2.5 million after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission upheld claims of racial, sexual and religious harassment and found the company had tolerated a hostile work environment.
Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com