A jury awarded a million dollars to an Oregon woman who was told, “I don’t serve black people.”

PORTLAND, Oregon. – A jury awarded an Oregon woman $1 million in damages after it was found that she was discriminated against by a gas station employee who told her, “I don’t serve black people.”

This week, a Multnomah County jury awarded 63-year-old Portlander Rose Wakefield $550,000 in punitive damages.

Wakefield’s attorney, Gregory Cafuri, said that on March 12, 2020, she stopped for gas at the Jacksons Food Store in Beaverton and saw the attendant Nigel Powers ignore her and fill up other drivers instead.

According to Kafuri, when she tried to ask for help, he said, “I’ll come to you whenever I want.”

Service personnel are required to refuel motorists at gas stations in major Oregon communities, including Portland and the nearby suburb of Beaverton.

Surveillance video showed Wakefield going inside to ask for help. Another employee followed her outside to fill her up with gasoline. Cafuri said that as she was leaving, Wakefield asked Powers why he refused to help her and that he said, “I don’t serve blacks.”

“I thought, ‘What world am I living in?’ Wakefield told KGW. “It shouldn’t end like this. It was a terrible, terrible confrontation between me and this guy.”

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According to Cafuri, Wakefield complained to managers twice over the next week, but her phone calls were largely ignored.

According to Kafuri, Powers was fired a month after corporate records showed he had been sued several times for talking on his cell phone.

“Miss Wakefield was originally just going to let it go,” Kafuri said. “She told her friends that it was too disturbing and that she didn’t want to deal with it. And then she thought about it and said, “This is too wrong. I have to do something about it.” “

Jacksons Grocery Stores said in a statement Thursday that the company has a zero tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind and that it disagrees with the jury’s decision because “our knowledge is not consistent with the verdict.”

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“After careful consideration of all the facts and evidence, including CCTV, we decided to take this matter to court because we were confident, based on our knowledge, that the service issue actually reported by the customer was investigated and promptly resolved. ,” the statement said. .

The company did not elaborate, but Kafuri said Powers was never questioned by the company about racist comments and was only punished for not serving customers in order of arrival.

Attempts to contact Powers were unsuccessful.