A Black woman who claims she was falsely accused of shoplifting, detained and pushed around by employees at a Nordstrom store in metro Atlanta is suing the upscale department store chain.
Dr. Naomi Black was preparing for a trip to Bali on July 19 last year and went to the Nordstrom store at Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, Georgia, to return an item and do some shopping.
She made a purchase and was leaving the store when a female Nordstrom employee stepped in front of her and physically blocked her path, stating, “You cannot leave the store,” according to her lawsuit filed in Gwinnett County State Court on July 17 (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star).
Then another female employee allegedly approached Black and took her shopping bag from her hand, telling her, “You’re going to need to come with us.”
Neither employee told Black why she couldn’t leave the store or identified any suspected theft or wrongdoing, the lawsuit says.
The two women positioned themselves on either side of her and escorted her to the store’s office. During the encounter, a Nordstrom employee “forcefully shoved” Black, the lawsuit says.
No Theft, No Apology
The employee identified as “Jane Doe 2” in the complaint searched through Black’s bag without her consent, while a third woman entered the room and stood against the wall. They found no stolen merchandise in her bag.
During the encounter, handcuffs were visible on a table within Black’s line of sight, and none of the employees would respond to her when she asked why she was being detained or “what conduct allegedly justified the stop,” the complaint says.
The episode finally ended when the Nordstrom employees allegedly admitted that they “had mistaken her for someone else” and permitted Black to leave the store. She was never arrested or accused of wrongdoing.
A Traumatizing Experience
The lawsuit says that as a result of being blocked from leaving, surrounded by employees, forcefully shoved, and subjected to a non-consensual search without any probable cause, reasonable suspicion, or lawful justification, Black “experienced an involuntary restraint of her freedom of movement,” causing her humiliation and emotional distress.
“I felt violated, and I also felt fear,” Black recalled in an interview with WSB-TV. “What they did to me was unacceptable.”
Black, who is a licensed professional counselor specializing in trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, continues to experience emotional and psychological effects resulting from the incident, including “acute PTSD,” the complaint says.
Allegations Against Nordstrom
The lawsuit accuses Nordstrom, Inc., the store’s manager Stephanie Cole, and three other unidentified female employees, including a loss prevention specialist, of false imprisonment and negligence. It states that under Georgia law a merchant may detain a customer suspected of shoplifting “only upon reasonable grounds, conducted in a reasonable manner, and limited to a reasonable length of time.”
Black did not set off any anti-shoplifting or inventory control devices as she neared the exit, the complaint notes, nor did she engage in any conduct reasonably suggesting theft or attempted theft.
The detention of Black “was not brief, accidental or justified; it was deliberate, intimidating, and unsupported by any reasonable suspicion of theft or wrongdoing,” the complaint argues.
“I kept wondering in my head, what did I do wrong?” Black told WSB.
She said when the encounter turned physical, with one employee allegedly grabbing her arm while the other pushed her through multiple levels of the department store, “I told her, ‘do not touch me.’”
When the store employees finally realized their mistake, Black said one woman told her, “Oh, we just thought that you looked like someone else.”
None of the store employees apologized to Black for the ordeal before she was released, she said.
The lawsuit also alleges that Nordstrom, its partner company and the store manager Cole are liable for negligent supervision and training and improper merchant detention.
Employees Allegedly Violated Nordstrom’s Own Policy
While flouting Nordstrom’s own code of conduct and ethics, which includes commitments to “treat every customer with respect, to maintain a safe and welcoming environment for everyone who enters its stores, and to prohibit intimidating conduct toward customers,” the complaint contends that the store’s employees involved in Black’s detention were inadequately trained on what state law requires during loss prevention incidents as well as in how to interact with customers, inevitably leading to the harm caused to Black.
She seeks a jury trial to determine damages for her loss of liberty, emotional and psychological damages, embarrassment, mental anguish and loss of dignity, as well as special damages for counseling, therapy and other medical expenses, and punitive damages to deter similar misconduct in the future.
Nordstrom did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Atlanta Black Star.
All of the defendants have 30 days after being served with the complaint to respond in court.
