Bay Area Man Sues Bullock's for Race Discrimination; Orange County Bullock's Falsely Accuses and Unlawfully Detains Black Businessman for Shoplifting -- Trial Set for January 29 in San Francisco.

discrimination lawsuit against Bullock's Department Store -- for falsely accusing a black businessman of shoplifting and unlawfully detaining him -- is set to begin in California Superior Court here on January 29, 1996. Bullock's is a division of Federated Department Stores (New York Stock Exchange symbol: FD).

The lawsuit stems from a December 23, 1995 incident at the Costa Mesa, Calif., Bullock's Department Store at South Coast Plaza Shopping Center. Maurice Brewster, a Tiburon, Calif. homeowner, was visiting his in-laws in Orange County for the Christmas Holidays. Brewster, a 40-year-old executive for a national telephone paging service, alleges he was singled out as a suspect for shoplifting and detained by a store manager solely because he is black.

"Mr. Brewster went to spend his hard-earned money at Bullock's to buy presents for his family," said Edwin Bradley of Kerosky & Bradley, Brewster's attorney. "He did not shoplift. But he did spend more than $550 at Bullock's that day. The manager of Bullock's obviously decided that something must be wrong when a well-dressed African-American man presents a platinum credit card. Bullock's treatment of Mr. Brewster, a long-standing Bullock's customer, is not only illegal, it is unconscionable."

Brewster's lawsuit accuses Bullocks Department Stores of violation of California's Unruh Civil Rights Act, false arrest/imprisonment, assault and battery, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

The Events of December 23, 1995

According to the lawsuit, the events of Dec. 23, 1995 unfolded as follows:

After spending much of the day shopping at the Costa Mesa Bullock's with his wife, Brewster took some of his purchases, including a Krups coffee maker and eight plastic Santas with no retail value, to the Bullock's gift wrapping department.

Brewster was asked for his Bullock's President's Club platinum credit card, entitling him to a free gift wrapping, and the receipts for his purchases. He explained that he had all receipts except for the coffee maker, which was either with his wife or in his car. (It was later determined that the receipt was in his car.) The Bullock's representative indicated there was no problem and said it would take one hour for the gifts to be wrapped.

Shortly after Brewster dropped off his purchases, Robert Murakami, Assistant Operations Manager for the Costa Mesa Bullock's and manager in charge of the store at the time, went to the gift wrapping department. Murakami testified in his deposition that gift wrapping department personnel called him to look at Brewster's gifts. He also testified that he told the gift wrapping department representatives to put aside Brewster's gifts so he could ask him about the plastic Santas. The gift wrapping department personnel were told to page Murakami when Brewster returned.

On schedule at approximately 10:45 p.m., Brewster returned to the Bullock's gift wrapping department to pick up his purchases. He was asked to wait a few minutes, and, unbeknownst to him, Murakami was paged to return to the gift wrapping department. Because of the delay, Brewster began shopping in a nearby department.

When Murakami arrived and didn't see Brewster, he contacted Bullock's security department, instructing them to use store surveillance cameras to located Brewster. In addition, either Murakami, or a member of store security at Murakami's request, alerted Bullock's credit card department of their suspicion that Brewster was using a stolen credit card.

(In statements made to Brewster's attorney, Murakami claims that, at this point, he did not know Brewster was black so could not be guilty of race discrimination. However, he is unable to explain how he could describe Brewster to store security if he didn't even know his race. Moreover, Murakami himself searched the men's room for Brewster, still claiming he did not know what Brewster looked like.)

Brewster returned to the gift wrapping department a second time a few minutes later, and was again asked to wait. Murakami was paged to the gift wrapping department. He approached Brewster a few minutes later and asked him for the receipt for the coffee maker. Brewster explained that the receipt was with his wife or in his car.

At this point, Brewster was detained while Murakami checked the store's journal tape, a record of all sales made at Bullock's that day. Brewster offered to get the receipt, but Murakami told him to stay put. After reviewing the journal tape, Murakami determined that Brewster had in fact purchased the coffee maker. Murakami then escorted Brewster back to the gift wrapping department and told the gift wrapping representative to wrap Brewster's purchases.

While the two men waited for the gifts to be wrapped, Murakami did not apologize to Brewster, but explained that the Costa Mesa Bullock's was having trouble with shoplifting, and the majority of black males who entered the store were shoplifters, according to Murakami.

Murakami also told Brewster that he fully understood discrimination because, as an Asian American, he had been discriminated against. Murakami described to Brewster an experience at a store in the Midwest where one such incident had taken place. At his deposition, Murakami denied relating this personal experience to Brewster, but admitted the experience did happen.

Bullock's was closed by the time Brewster's purchases were wrapped, and he was escorted out of the store by Bullock's security guards.

CONTACT: Kerosky & Bradley

Edwin L. Bradley Esq., 415/777-4445