What is the price for humiliating an employee? In the case of Graham Gentles, the price was extremely high.
Graham Gentles suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome and he was also an Army veteran. He took a job at a Target Store near his home in Pasadena, California. He apparently had gotten into a fight outside of the workplace with another Target employee, and soon after several co-workers banded together and accused him of stealing from the store. What happened next was bizarre and tragic.
According to an article by Chris Spargo for Dailymail.com (January 24, 2015):
“A Target employee committed suicide just days after he was accused of stealing at the store. Graham Gentles, a 22-year-old from Pasadena, California who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, was ‘paraded, around the store in handcuffs as a punishment for stealing, even though police and store management never found anything and he was never charged. Three days after the incident, on July 18 of last year [2014], he jumped to his death from the roof of the Courtyard Marriott in Monrovia.”
The young man reputedly said the following to his mother prior to committing suicide: “Mom, I’ve never stolen. They did the walk of shame, I had to do the walk of shame. But they only do that when people steal and I’ve never stolen a thing. Mom this is the worst day of my life.”
The mother is suing the store. His attorney stated:
“This was part of his extended family. He had indicated that he felt safe there. This is where his friends were, so he felt as though he lost all of that in one moment.”
Where are the lines drawn?
“Working retail” can be prestigious and lucrative, or temporary and minimum wage. It can be much than that, of course. Co-workers become family and friends. It is also a profession for some who have limited options.
It is well understood that stealing is forbidden, and I am not naïve to the point that “shrinkage,” the loss of merchandise, is a problem. However (and I know this from my own work history), some store management and employees take it upon themselves to cross lines that should never be crossed.
In the case of Graham Gentles, the line was crossed. Store management never found any merchandise in his possession. All they had to go on were the conspiratorial words of the co-workers.
Rather than questioning the employee and those that had accused him, they assumed he was a thief. The store management/security and the police proceeded to humiliate him by marching him around the store in handcuffs. They deserve their lawsuit.
There were no lines and no boundaries. There was only the need to exact punishment on an employee who may have had difficulties relating to others. Many with Asperger’s are socially awkward. They want to relate, but may not always know quite how to do so. Graham Gentles may have been viewed by several co-workers as being a target; a fool or worse. It is easy to gang-up on such a person; indeed, some people derive joy from ganging up rather than accepting and acceptance.
Ethical solutions
A strong sense of ethics and fair play needed to be infused throughout the store, and obviously, at levels far above. It would be “interesting” to determine if the policies and procedures manuals in place for Target retail locations, endorsed parading employees suspected of stealing around the store in handcuffs. It is also of interest to me as to the relationship of store security to the police department. Making an accusation and having proof are two different things.
Anyone in that store potentially could have accused any other employee of stealing – without proof or rationalization. Unless, of course, it only applied to “certain” employees that others simply did not like. To that end, it would be equally as important to determine if guidelines were in place that talked of respect within the workplace for all employees and of direct lines of communication from employees to HR.
A strong platform of ethical guidelines could have prevented any part of this tragedy from happening in the first place. As someone who speaks and consults on these issues, I have never seen situations like this heartbreak happen in a vacuum. It occurs because ethical controls are in place; it starts corporately, regionally, and filters right down to store level.
The walk of shame, shamed the young man to end his life. This did not need to happen.
Virginia Gentles v. Target Corporation
This suit was filed 1/22/15 in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles (Case #BC570020) and is comprised of 4 Counts: Read the 9 page suit at: http://gentlesvtarget.blogspot.com/
1) False Imprisonment
2) Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
3) Negligence
4 Wrongful Death
A Lt . for the Pasadena PD stated that there were NO ALLEGATIONS of theft against Mr. Gentles. This as reported in the Pasadena Weekly by Staff Reporter Andre Coleman who interviewed the Lt.
Mr. Gentles suffered from Aspbergers.
Here are some extracts from the Virginia Gentles v. Target Corporation suit which is carried in full at http://gentlesvtarget.blogspot…, some of this is already familiar to you but other info may not be:
* Mr. Graham Gentles worked at Defendant’s Pasadena store. Mr. Gentles’ job title was Cashier.
* On July 15, 2014, at about 1:50 pm, Mr. Gentles arrived at the Pasadena Target store prior to the beginning of his shift which began 2:00 pm. Mr. Gentles typically arrived about 10 minutes early for work.
* When Mr. Gentles arrived at the front entrance on this date, he was met by police and Target store security personnel which included Defendants Anthony Mims and Charles Godinez.
* At the direction of Defendants Anthony Mims and Charles Godinez, the police grabbed Mr. Gentles at the front entrance, emptied his pockets, pulled his hat off his head, handcuffed him and then led him along with Defendants Anthony Mims and Charles Godinez and Target security personnel from the front entrance in front of the registers, past guest services (where there are a lot of employees and customers) and then through the double doors to the AP2 office of Target’s Pasadena store.
* At the direction of Defendants Anthony Mims and Charles Godinez, Mr. Gentles was then forcibly detained by Target security personnel and the police in Target’s AP2 office where he was questioned. Some time later, Mr. Gentles was taken to a police car and then taken to the police department.
* Plaintiff is informed and believe that Mr. Gentles was never charged with any crime and was released the same day by the police.
* Plaintiff is informed and believes that Defendants Mims and Godinez were acting pursuant to Target policy in instigating Mr. Gentles’ arrest and subjecting him to the Walk of Shame.
* Plaintiff’s imprisonment at the direction of Defendants Anthony Mims and Charles Godinez and was part of a Target’s policy known as “Walk of Shame”. The Walk of Shame is a Target policy to purposefully cause shame, embarrassment and emotional distress to any Target employee who is suspected of stealing from Target Corporation. The policy consists of suspected employees being arrested and paraded in hand-cuffs through the Target store in full view of co-workers and store customers.
* Plaintiff is informed and believes that the Walk of Shame has happened on numerous occasions to Target employees suspected of stealing from Target.
* Plaintiff is informed and believes that Target initiated an investigation of Mr. Gentles several months before his arrest related to a verbal altercation that Mr. Gentles had with another Target co-worker at a bar outside of work hours.
* Plaintiff is informed and believes that allegations made by this other co-worker led Defendants Anthony Mims and Charles Godinez and Target security personnel to instigate the arrest and detention of Mr. Gentles and to subject him to the Walk of Shame.
* Mr. Gentles committed suicide on July 18, 2014, three days after his arrest was instigated by Defendants Mims and Godinez and Mr. Gentles being subjected to the “Walk of Shame” at the Pasadena store.
* Defendants’ conduct was a substantial factor in causing harm to Mr. Gentles.
* Defendants did not have any reasonable basis to believe that Mr. Gentles had committed a crime at any Target store at the time that its security personnel instigated the arrest of Mr. Gentles.
* Defendants and Does 1 through 100 inclusive, and each of them, had the duty to exercise ordinary care towards the decedent Graham Gentles and should have known that subjecting Mr. Gentles to false imprisonment would foreseeably cause Plaintiff to suffer severe emotional distress and that it is foreseeable that some individuals who experience severe emotional distress will attempt suicide.
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Also take a look at: http://targetfiling.blogspot.c… and there is a thread with 130 comments on the break room at http://www.thebreakroom.org/in…
Since when does one “suffer” from Asperger’s?
Every day.
suf·fer
ˈsəfər/Submit
verb
1.
experience or be subjected to (something bad or unpleasant).
“he’d suffered intense pain”
synonyms: hurt, ache, be in pain, feel pain; More
You can suffer from many mental health disorders. You can suffer from depression. It causes pain. Doh!
Aspiergians do suffer from abuse, humiliation, PTSD, etc… I know that all too well.
But suffering shouldn’t define the lives of those on the ASD spectrum.
who won ???
I’m totally confused. Does Target deal with internal theft? Absolutely. Does Target investigate internal theft? Have to. Does Target randomly call the cops because they heard gossip that somebody might be stealing? Impossible. They have people working there whose only job is to investigate internal theft (aka video, etc) and they wouldn’t call the cops because the retail gossip was this dude was stealing. And let’s say they did. Next, the cops show up and arrest him for theft based on gossip? Either this didn’t happen like they say or they deserve every dime they get.