A Starbucks manager has been awarded $25 million by a jury in New Jersey after they determined race discrimination played a role in their firing.
Laura Mattiacci, the lead trial counsel from Console Mattiacci Law, confirmed the verdict, stating the jury awarded $600,000 in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages.
The plaintiff, a white regional director responsible for managing Starbucks locations in Philadelphia, Southern New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, was fired following a highly publicized incident of racial profiling at a Philadelphia store in 2018.
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During that incident, a Starbucks employee called the police on two black men who were meeting another person at the location.
The men were subsequently arrested, leading to nationwide outrage and prompting Starbucks to close all its stores for several hours to conduct racial bias training about a month later.
According to the complaint, in an attempt to address the incident’s damage, the company allegedly took actions to penalize White employees who were not involved in the arrests but worked in and around Philadelphia.
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This was done to convince the community the company had appropriately responded to the incident, it was claimed.
The federal jury’s verdict, returned on Monday, held Starbucks liable under both federal and New Jersey state law.
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Mattiacci expressed gratitude for the jury’s attentiveness and their work in carefully considering the evidence presented during the trial.
The BBC reported her lawyers argued the upper management of Starbucks were “looking for a ‘scapegoat’ to terminate to show action was being taken.
