Originalartikel zu finden unter: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2006-04-11-swa-lawsuit_x.htmAlan Levin von USA Today wrote:Woman wins $27.5 million in suit against Southwest Airlines
A Texas jury has awarded $27.5 million to a woman who says Southwest Airlines flight attendants had her arrested in 2003 because they were overly aggressive in enforcing post 9/11 security.
The charges against Samantha Carrington, a U.S. citizen born in Iran, were dropped the next day when an FBI agent investigating the case came to her defense. Nevertheless, the Los Angeles woman says, she is now subjected to heightened security while flying and cannot clear her name from watch lists.
Carrington's lawyer, Enrique Moreno, says the case is an example of how post-Sept. 11 security measures can unfairly target innocent people, especially those with Middle Eastern backgrounds.
"It started with profiling, perhaps a stereotype, and it escalated to something much more sinister," Moreno said Tuesday. "This particular incident has some role in that greater national discussion about balancing security with individual rights."
The jury reached a verdict Friday, finding that Southwest was responsible for the Oct. 7, 2003, incident and had acted with malice. It awarded her $2.5 million for emotional suffering and $25 million in punitive damages.
Southwest denies its flight attendants did anything wrong and intends to appeal the verdict, spokesman Ed Stewart said. "We stand by our actions," Stewart said.
Flight attendants told police that Carrington grabbed one flight attendant's arms so hard that she caused bruises.
Carrington, 54, an economics professor at California State University, Los Angeles, maintains she did nothing more than complain about poor service on the flight from Houston to El Paso. She had taken her mother to a Houston hospital for cancer treatment and was returning to Los Angeles.
FBI Special Agent John Shipley testified that he did not believe the flight attendants' accounts. Jurors also saw a letter written to Carrington from Southwest President Colleen Barrett calling the incident "heinous" and offering to donate $8,000 in airline tickets to the hospital where her mother had been treated.
The judgment in favor of an alleged unruly passenger isn't the first. In 2003, the Transportation Security Administration agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a physician of Indian descent who said air marshals detained him because of his dark skin.
Originalartikel zu finden unter: http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060411/NEWS/604110351/1001Tammy Fonce-Olivas von der El Paso Times wrote:April 11, 2006
Jury awards Southwest passenger $27.5 million
A California woman of Iranian descent arrested in El Paso three years ago after Southwest Airlines employees accused her of assaulting a flight attendant and interfering with a flight should receive $27.5 million in damages for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution, an El Paso jury decided.
El Paso lawyer Enrique Moreno said the verdict showed that jurors agreed that his client, Samantha Carrington, was wrongfully arrested on Oct. 7, 2003, when a flight to Houston from Los Angeles made a scheduled stop in El Paso.
"In the evidence it came out that one of the flight attendants stated that Ms. Carrington reminded her of a terrorist, and in our views she was the victim of profiling stereotypes and discrimination," Moreno said.
The verdict was issued late Friday in County Court-at-Law No. 5.
The airline plans to appeal the verdict, Beth Harbin, a Southwest spokeswoman in Dallas, said Monday.
"We certainly don't agree with this particular verdict. The verdict was not based on all the available facts because those facts were not presented to the jury for their consideration. We will appeal," Harbin said.
According to court documents, the jury found the airline caused Carrington to be maliciously prosecuted and falsely imprisoned. The jury also found that Carrington's conduct did not contribute to her arrest and prosecution.
Moreno said the verdict sends a national message about racial profiling.
"I think all of us are concerned about security, but I think the lesson -- and I think it's a national lesson -- is you can't have uncontrolled power that affects individual rights. ... they (jurors) were not going to let a company simply under the guise of security fly and trample on a person's rights," Moreno said.
Tammy Fonce-Olivas may be reached at tfonce@elpasotimes.com; 546-6362.
