Today a federal judge threw out the race discrimination portion of the law suite brought by a white former Savannah restaurant manager against Paula Deen: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/race-based-claims-thrown-out-paula-deen-lawsuit
The sexual harassment parts of the suit continue - for now. Gawker reports that the suit alleges that Dean's brother in occasionally viewed and distributed pornographic materials in the workplace, and that Paula Deen once said: "If you think I have worked this hard to lose everything because of a piece of pussy, you better think again." (see: http://gawker.com/judge-throws-out-racial-discrimination-claims-against-p-1112916357?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gawker%2Ffull+%28Gawker%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher ) The judge ruled that there was no evidence the alleged racially harassing remarks were addressed to the white manager, or made with the intent to harm her. He agreed with Deen that the plaintiff had no standing to sue Dean for racially harassing comments or behavior that may have been directed at, or harmed, black employees. For all the melodrama surrounding this case, this is actually an interesting and important point, and I would not be surprised if this is the part of this case that actually has some legal relevance for other cases down the line. Despite what some of my FB "friends" seem to think, today's ruling does not mean that the Judge found that Paula Deen did not make the racially charged derogatory statements, or engage in racist behavior. It just means that even if she did, this particular plaintiff has no grounds to sue for damages. It does suggest to me though that the plaintiff was throwing in the kitchen sink in this law suit, which for me decreases her credibility on other fronts as well. It also really makes me wonder how her original lawyer allowed the case to proceed to the deposition stage before getting this part of the suit dismissed. It seems like she is rich and famous enough to have afforded a lawyer good enough to one way or the other delay the deposition until this got ruled on. There are plenty of cases in which the damage done the defendant was not in the outcome of the suit itself, but in the contents of the deposition getting leaked (ask Bill Clinton). -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
