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Walmart ordered to pay $4.4 million for racially profiling customer

Walmart Results
Posted at 9:14 AM, Aug 23, 2022
and last updated 2022-08-23 18:45:29-04

A court ruled that Walmart must pay $4.4 million in damages to an Oregon man who accused the retailer of racially profiling him in March 2020.

According to a court document, the Walmart employee was “reckless” and “wanton” in approaching Michael Mangun. A court document said that the employee, who a judge determined was acting within the scope of his employment, racially profiled Mangun, a Black man from Oregon.

Court documents indicated that Mangun noticed that the employee followed him throughout the store when Mangun went to an Oregon Walmart to purchase a light bulb. The employee asked Mangun to leave the store, but Mangun refused, claiming he did nothing wrong.

The employee then called a non-emergency police line. A store manager told deputies the store had seen a lot of theft, but Mangun maintained that it had nothing to do with him. Deputies did not arrest or take any actions against Mangun.

KGN-TV reported that deputies told Walmart that the employee had a pattern of calling the police for false reasons. The outlet said that the employee was fired in July 2020 for mishandling $35.

In a statement to KGN, Walmart said the fine was “excessive.”