A white Starbucks manager who was fired after two black men were refused access to a Philadelphia store bathroom — triggering nationwide racial protests — has been awarded $25 million by a federal jury after she argued she was axed because of her race.
Shannon Phillips, a regional manager who oversaw several Starbucks locations across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, argued in a lawsuit she was cut loose by the coffee giant after viral footage of the two black men being arrested in 2018 sparked a firestorm of racial backlash.
Phillips argued she had nothing to do with the arrests but Starbucks management used her as a “scapegoat” in order to prove the company was taking action amid the controversy.
The jury’s verdict, handed down on Monday, found Phillips’ race was a factor in the company’s decision to sack her, which was a violation of her civil rights.
The saga unfolded when an employee at the Rittenhouse Square location had called 911 on April 12, 2018, after the two men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, were denied access to the bathroom because they weren’t paying customers — and then refused to leave.
The men, who said they had been simply sitting at a table waiting for a potential real estate business partner to arrive, were arrested for trespassing.
Protesters swarmed the Philly store and others across the country amid calls for a boycott over their arrests.
Starbucks later announced it was temporarily shuttering 8,000 locations nationwide so staff could undergo anti-bias training as a result of the viral arrests.
While Phillips was fired a month after the ordeal, the manager of the Philly store, who is black, testified during the six-day trial that he kept his job.
Phillips’ attorney, Laura Mattiacci, told jurors that the store manager wasn’t sacked because he is black.
Starbucks had argued during the proceedings that Phillips, who had worked for the company for 13 years, was let go for being ineffective and absent in the aftermath of the arrests.
The company declined to comment on the verdict.
The former regional manager was awarded $25.6 million in compensatory and punitive damages following the six-day trial.
She will also seek back pay from the company, her lawyer said.
The two men at the center of the viral footage eventually had the charges against them dropped.
They also reached an undisclosed settlement with Starbucks, as well as the city, in the wake of their arrests.
