Strip Search Prank Call Scam
Encyclopedia
The McDonald's strip search scam was a series of incidents occurring for roughly a decade before an arrest was made in 2004. These incidents involved a man calling a restaurant
or grocery store
, claiming to be a police
detective
, and convincing managers
to conduct strip search
es of female employees or perform other unusual acts on behalf of the police. The calls were usually placed to fast-food restaurants in small rural towns.
Over 70 such occurrences were reported in 30 U.S.
states
, until an incident in 2004 in Mt. Washington, Kentucky finally led to the arrest
and charging of David Stewart, a 37-year-old employee of Corrections Corporation of America
, a private-commercial firm contracted by the State of Florida
to provide corrections officers at private detention facilities
. On October 31, 2006, he was acquitted of all charges. These incidents were the inspiration behind an episode of Law & Order: SVU
featuring Robin Williams
as the scammer, and Monica Raymund
as the victim, and an award-winning short film Plainview which played the festival circuit in 2007/2008.
s. Some notable cases include:
restaurant in Mount Washington, Kentucky
. According to assistant manager Donna Summers, the caller identified himself as a policeman, "Officer Scott", and gave a vague description of a slightly-built young white woman with dark hair suspected of theft. Summers believed this described Louise Ogborn (now Louise Bolin), a female employee on duty. After the caller demanded that the employee be searched at the store because no officers were available at the moment to handle such a minor matter, the employee was brought into an office and ordered to remove her clothes, which Summers placed in a plastic bag and took to her car at the caller's instruction. Another assistant manager, Kim Dockery, was present during this time, believing she was there as a witness to the search. After an hour Dockery left and Summers told the caller that she was also required at the counter. The caller then told her to bring in someone she trusted to assist.
Summers called her fiancé, Walter Nix, who arrived and took over from Summers. Told that a policeman was on the phone, Nix followed the caller's directions for the next two hours. He removed the apron the employee had covered herself with and ordered her to dance and perform jumping jacks. Nix then ordered the employee to insert her fingers into her vagina
and expose her genital cavity to him as part of the search. He also ordered her to sit on his lap and kiss him, and when she refused he spanked her until she promised to comply. The caller also spoke to the employee, demanding that she do as she was told or face worse punishment. Recalling this period of time, the employee said that "I was scared for my life".
After the employee had been in the office for two and a half hours, she was ordered to perform oral sex
on Nix.
Summers returned to the office periodically, and during these visits the employee was instructed by the caller to cover herself up with the apron. Becoming uneasy with the situation, Nix was then permitted by the caller to leave, on the condition that Summers had to find someone to replace him. After Nix left, he called a friend and told him "I have done something terribly bad".
With Nix leaving and short on available staff due to the dinnertime rush, Summers spotted Thomas Simms, the store maintenance man who had stopped at the restaurant
for dessert
, in the lobby
and instructed him to enter the office to watch the employee. Simms refused to go along with the caller's demands. It was at this point that Summers became suspicious and decided to call the store manager, whom the caller had claimed to have on another phone line. Speaking with her boss, Summers then discovered that the store manager had been napping and had not spoken to any police officers, and that the call had been a hoax
. The caller quickly hung up. An employee dialed *69 before another call could ring in, to get the telephone number of the caller's phone. Summers, now hysterical, began apologizing and released the employee (by then shivering and wrapped in an emergency blanket) after 3 hours of false arrest
and then called the real police, who arrested Nix for sexual assault
and began an investigation to find the caller.
The entire incident was captured on a surveillance camera in the office. Summers watched the tape later that night, and according to her attorney, called off the engagement.
pay phone in Panama City, Florida
.
Mt. Washington police, doing a simple word search on the Internet, quickly realized that this was only the latest in a long line of similar incidents that stretched over a period of nearly ten years; none of which had gone as far, for as long, with as many people involved, as the incident at the Mt. Washington McDonald's.
Learning that the call had been made with an AT&T
calling card
, and that the largest retailer of such cards was Wal-Mart
, they contacted police in Panama City
, who informed them that Detective Flaherty in Massachusetts
was already conducting an investigation of his own after several calls had been placed to Boston-area restaurants and he had already pulled surveillance camera footage from a local Panama City Wal-Mart. Following Flaherty's lead, they used the serial number
of the calling card
used to make the call, and learned that the card had come from a different Wal-Mart store than the card used for the Massachusetts calls. Using Wal-Mart's records of the second store, the cash register, and time of the purchase of that card, the police were able to find surveillance camera video
of the transaction
. Unlike the Massachusetts
investigation, which had gone cold when surveillance
video failed to show the purchaser because the cameras were trained on the parking lot and not the registers, the cameras at the particular store where the card used in the Mt. Washington call was purchased were trained on the cashiers.
The buyer in the video was wearing a correctional officer's uniform for the private security firm Corrections Corporation of America
. Video and stills from both Wal-Marts were compared and the same man was seen entering and exiting the Wal-Mart at the time of the earlier purchase. The police used this footage to produce a front-and-back composite image of the suspect, and subsequent queries to the private correctional company's human resources
department led to the identification of the buyer as David R. Stewart, a married father of five children.
During his questioning by police
, Stewart insisted he'd never bought a calling card
, but detectives found one in his house that had been used to call nine restaurants in the past year, including a Burger King
in Idaho Falls, on the day its manager was reportedly duped. Police also found dozens of applications for police department jobs, hundreds of police magazines, and police-type uniforms, guns
and holsters, indicating that being or becoming a police officer
was possibly a fantasy of the suspect.
After his arrest, Stewart was extradited to Kentucky
to face charges of impersonating a police officer, and solicitation
of sodomy
. He was not convicted, with both the defense and prosecution attorneys saying that a lack of direct evidence may have affected the jury's decision.
Nix, remorseful for his part in the crime, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse
and other crimes in February 2006 in exchange for his testimony against Stewart. Because he was the principal perpetrator of the beatings and engaged in the sex act, he received a five-year sentence, with a minimum of 2 years in prison. Summers entered an Alford plea
to a charge of unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor
, and received one year of probation
. She was not charged with any sex-related crimes.
The victim underwent therapy to address post-traumatic stress disorder
depression related to her abuse, including prescription anti-depressants. She abandoned her plans to attend the University of Louisville
, where she had anticipated declaring pre-med. In an interview with ABC News
she said that, after her abuse, she "felt dirty" and had difficulty making and maintaining friendships because she wouldn't "allow anyone to get too close to her."
Since Stewart's arrest, police reported that the calls have stopped. Stewart remains a suspect in similar cases throughout the USA.
Three years after the incident, still undergoing therapy, the former employee sued McDonald's for $200 million for failing to protect her during her ordeal. Her grounds were that McDonald's corporate headquarters was aware of the danger and possibility of the hoax because it had defended itself against lawsuits for similar incidents at its restaurants in four other states that had suffered similar hoaxes at least two years before the Mt. Washington attack, and had not taken the appropriate action directed by its own chief of security as outlined in his memo to McDonald's upper management. Summers also sued McDonald's for failing to warn her of the previous hoaxes, asking for $50 million.
McDonald's based its defense on four points: (1) Summers deviated from the company's management manual, which prohibits strip search
es, and therefore McDonald's should not be responsible for any action conducted by Summers outside the scope of her employment; (2) workman's compensation statutes prohibit employees from suing employers; (3) Nix, who actually performed the acts, was not a McDonald's employee; and (4) the victim did not remove herself from the situation, contrary to common sense.
The civil trial began September 10, 2007 and ended October 5, 2007 when a jury awarded to the victim $5 million in punitive damages and $1.1 million in compensatory damages and expenses. Summers was also awarded $1.1 million. The jury decided that McDonald's and the unnamed caller were each 50 percent at fault for the abuse to which the victim was subjected. McDonald's and its attorneys were sanctioned for withholding evidence pertinent to the outcome of the trial.
In November 2008, McDonald's was also ordered to pay $2.4 million in legal fees to plaintiffs' lawyers. On November 20, 2009, the Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld the jury's verdict, but reduced the punitive damages award to Summers. McDonald's appealed to the Kentucky Supreme Court; while the petition was pending in 2010, Ogborn settled with McDonald's for $1.1 million, dropping her claim for punitive damages.
After the decision, McDonald's revised its manager's training program to better emphasize awareness of prank phone calls and protection of the rights of employees. While the training had already included such topics, none of the two managers and three junior employees involved in the hoax could recall much about it.
}}
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
or grocery store
Grocery store
A grocery store is a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are...
, claiming to be a police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
, and convincing managers
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
to conduct strip search
Strip search
A strip search is the stripping of a person to check for weapons or other contraband.-Legality of strip searches:...
es of female employees or perform other unusual acts on behalf of the police. The calls were usually placed to fast-food restaurants in small rural towns.
Over 70 such occurrences were reported in 30 U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
states
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
, until an incident in 2004 in Mt. Washington, Kentucky finally led to the arrest
Arrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
and charging of David Stewart, a 37-year-old employee of Corrections Corporation of America
Corrections Corporation of America
Corrections Corporation of America is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. The company is the largest private corrections company in the United States and manages more than 60 facilities with a designed capacity of 90,000...
, a private-commercial firm contracted by the State of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
to provide corrections officers at private detention facilities
Private prison
A private prison, jail, or detention center is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency...
. On October 31, 2006, he was acquitted of all charges. These incidents were the inspiration behind an episode of Law & Order: SVU
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
featuring Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
as the scammer, and Monica Raymund
Monica Raymund
Monica Raymund is an American stage performer and actress best known for playing Ria Torres in the TV show Lie to Me.-Personal life:...
as the victim, and an award-winning short film Plainview which played the festival circuit in 2007/2008.
Incidents before the Mt. Washington call
There were incidents in multiple states that followed the same pattern: a caller identifying himself as a police officer would contact a manager or floor supervisor on the pretense of soliciting the supervisor to assist the police in detaining a suspected criminal employee and conducting a search of the person. The caller would provide a physical description of the suspect which the supervisor would recognize. A vast majority of the calls were to fast-food restaurants but a few were made to chain grocery storeGrocery store
A grocery store is a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are...
s. Some notable cases include:
- Two calls reported in 1992: one in Devils Lake, North DakotaDevils Lake, North DakotaAs of the 2000 Census, there were 7,222 people, 3,127 households, and 1,773 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 3,508 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 89.23% White, 0.22% African American, 7.84% Native American, 0.28%...
and another in Fallon, NevadaFallon, Nevada-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 7,536 people, 3,004 households, and 1,877 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,474.1 people per square mile . There were 3,336 housing units at an average density of 1,095.2 per square mile...
. - A McDonald'sMcDonald'sMcDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
manager in Leitchfield, KentuckyLeitchfield, KentuckyAs of the census of 2000, there were 6,139 people, 2,485 households, and 1,615 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 2,797 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 96.63% White, 1.56% African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.18%...
was convinced on November 30, 2000 to undress before a customer when the caller persuaded her that the customer was a suspected sex offender and that her serving as bait would permit undercover officers to arrest him when he showed an interest in her. - A call to a McDonald's restaurant in Hinesville, GeorgiaHinesville, GeorgiaHinesville is a city in Liberty County, Georgia, United States. The population was 30,392 at the 2000 census. Hinesville is also known to have been the home of three signers of the Declaration of Independence: Lyman Hall, George Walton and Button Gwinnett. The city is the county seat of Liberty...
in February 2003, in which a female manager, who thought she was speaking with a police officer in the presence of the director of operations for the franchisee GWD Management Corporation, took a 19-year-old female employee into the women's bathroom and strip searched her, and brought in a 55 year old male employee to perform a body cavity searchBody cavity searchA body cavity search is either a visual search or a manual internal inspection of body cavities such as for prohibited material , such as illegal drugs, money, jewelry, or weapons...
to uncover hidden drugs. McDonald's and franchisee GWD Management Corporation were taken to court over the incident. In 2005 U.S. District Judge John F. Nangle granted summary judgment to McDonald's, and denied in part summary judgment to GWD Management Corporation. In 2006, The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision. - On January 26, 2003, an Applebee'sApplebee'sApplebee’s International, Inc., is an American company which develops, franchises, and operates the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar restaurant chain. As of September 2011, there were 2,010 restaurants operating system-wide in the United States, one U.S. territory and 14 other countries...
Neighborhood Grill & Bar assistant manager victimized a waitress after receiving a collect callCollect callA collect call in the USA and Canada or reverse charge call in the UK and other countries is a telephone call in which the calling party wants to place a call at the called party's expense...
from someone who purported to be a regional manager. - On June 3, 2003, a Taco BellTaco BellTaco Bell is an American chain of fast-food restaurants based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., which serves American-adapted Mexican food. Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, other specialty items, and a variety of "Value Menu" items...
manager in Juneau, AlaskaJuneau, AlaskaThe City and Borough of Juneau is a unified municipality located on the Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of the then-District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900...
stripped a 14 year old female customer and forced her to perform lewd acts, at the request of a caller who claimed he was working with the company to investigate drug abuse. - In July 2003, a 36-year-old Winn-DixieWinn-DixieWinn-Dixie Stores, Inc. is an American supermarket chain based in Jacksonville, Florida. Winn-Dixie has ranked number 24 in the 2010 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2009 fiscal year estimated sales of $7.3 billion by Supermarket News. and was ranked the 43rd largest retailer in the...
grocery store manager in Panama City, FloridaPanama City, Florida-Personal income:The median income for a household in the city was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,830...
received a call instructing him to bring a 19 year old female cashier, who matched a physical description provided by the caller, into the office for a strip search. The cashier was forced to disrobe and pose in various positions as part of the search. The incident was ended when another manager entered the office to retrieve a set of keys. - In March 2004, a 17-year-old female customer at a Taco BellTaco BellTaco Bell is an American chain of fast-food restaurants based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., which serves American-adapted Mexican food. Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, other specialty items, and a variety of "Value Menu" items...
in Fountain Hills, Arizona near Phoenix was strip-searched by a manager receiving a call from a man claiming to be a police officer.
Mount Washington, Kentucky incident
On April 9, 2004, a call was made to a McDonald'sMcDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
restaurant in Mount Washington, Kentucky
Mount Washington, Kentucky
Mount Washington is a city in northeast Bullitt County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 8,485 at the 2000 census. The estimated population as of 2006 was 11,761. It is located at what was once the crossroads of two stagecoach routes, which spurred early population growth and the...
. According to assistant manager Donna Summers, the caller identified himself as a policeman, "Officer Scott", and gave a vague description of a slightly-built young white woman with dark hair suspected of theft. Summers believed this described Louise Ogborn (now Louise Bolin), a female employee on duty. After the caller demanded that the employee be searched at the store because no officers were available at the moment to handle such a minor matter, the employee was brought into an office and ordered to remove her clothes, which Summers placed in a plastic bag and took to her car at the caller's instruction. Another assistant manager, Kim Dockery, was present during this time, believing she was there as a witness to the search. After an hour Dockery left and Summers told the caller that she was also required at the counter. The caller then told her to bring in someone she trusted to assist.
Summers called her fiancé, Walter Nix, who arrived and took over from Summers. Told that a policeman was on the phone, Nix followed the caller's directions for the next two hours. He removed the apron the employee had covered herself with and ordered her to dance and perform jumping jacks. Nix then ordered the employee to insert her fingers into her vagina
Vagina
The vagina is a fibromuscular tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. Female insects and other invertebrates also have a vagina, which is the terminal part of the...
and expose her genital cavity to him as part of the search. He also ordered her to sit on his lap and kiss him, and when she refused he spanked her until she promised to comply. The caller also spoke to the employee, demanding that she do as she was told or face worse punishment. Recalling this period of time, the employee said that "I was scared for my life".
After the employee had been in the office for two and a half hours, she was ordered to perform oral sex
Oral sex
Oral sex is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a sex partner by the use of the mouth, tongue, teeth or throat. Cunnilingus refers to oral sex performed on females while fellatio refer to oral sex performed on males. Anilingus refers to oral stimulation of a person's anus...
on Nix.
Summers returned to the office periodically, and during these visits the employee was instructed by the caller to cover herself up with the apron. Becoming uneasy with the situation, Nix was then permitted by the caller to leave, on the condition that Summers had to find someone to replace him. After Nix left, he called a friend and told him "I have done something terribly bad".
With Nix leaving and short on available staff due to the dinnertime rush, Summers spotted Thomas Simms, the store maintenance man who had stopped at the restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
for dessert
Dessert
In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...
, in the lobby
Lobby
Lobby may refer to:* Lobby , an entranceway or foyer in a building* Lobbying, the action or the group used to influence a viewpoint to politicians* Lobby , a thick stew made in North Staffordshire, not unlike Lancashire Hotpot...
and instructed him to enter the office to watch the employee. Simms refused to go along with the caller's demands. It was at this point that Summers became suspicious and decided to call the store manager, whom the caller had claimed to have on another phone line. Speaking with her boss, Summers then discovered that the store manager had been napping and had not spoken to any police officers, and that the call had been a hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
. The caller quickly hung up. An employee dialed *69 before another call could ring in, to get the telephone number of the caller's phone. Summers, now hysterical, began apologizing and released the employee (by then shivering and wrapped in an emergency blanket) after 3 hours of false arrest
False arrest
False arrest is a common law tort, where a plaintiff alleges they were held in custody without probable cause, or without an order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction...
and then called the real police, who arrested Nix for sexual assault
Sexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
and began an investigation to find the caller.
The entire incident was captured on a surveillance camera in the office. Summers watched the tape later that night, and according to her attorney, called off the engagement.
Investigation and criminal trial
Although their initial suspicion was that the call had originated from a pay phone near the location of the restaurant, where the perpetrator could visually monitor police activity at the police station and the restaurant, the police later determined that the call had come from a supermarketSupermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
pay phone in Panama City, Florida
Panama City, Florida
-Personal income:The median income for a household in the city was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,830...
.
Mt. Washington police, doing a simple word search on the Internet, quickly realized that this was only the latest in a long line of similar incidents that stretched over a period of nearly ten years; none of which had gone as far, for as long, with as many people involved, as the incident at the Mt. Washington McDonald's.
Learning that the call had been made with an AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
calling card
Calling card
Calling card may refer to:* Visiting card, a card originally used socially to signify a visit made to a house if the occupant were absent, or as an introduction for oneself; the precursor to the modern business card...
, and that the largest retailer of such cards was Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
, they contacted police in Panama City
Panama City, Florida
-Personal income:The median income for a household in the city was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,830...
, who informed them that Detective Flaherty in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
was already conducting an investigation of his own after several calls had been placed to Boston-area restaurants and he had already pulled surveillance camera footage from a local Panama City Wal-Mart. Following Flaherty's lead, they used the serial number
Serial number
A serial number is a unique number assigned for identification which varies from its successor or predecessor by a fixed discrete integer value...
of the calling card
Calling card
Calling card may refer to:* Visiting card, a card originally used socially to signify a visit made to a house if the occupant were absent, or as an introduction for oneself; the precursor to the modern business card...
used to make the call, and learned that the card had come from a different Wal-Mart store than the card used for the Massachusetts calls. Using Wal-Mart's records of the second store, the cash register, and time of the purchase of that card, the police were able to find surveillance camera video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
of the transaction
Financial transaction
A financial transaction is an event or condition under the contract between a buyer and a seller to exchange an asset for payment. It involves a change in the status of the finances of two or more businesses or individuals.-History:...
. Unlike the Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
investigation, which had gone cold when surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
video failed to show the purchaser because the cameras were trained on the parking lot and not the registers, the cameras at the particular store where the card used in the Mt. Washington call was purchased were trained on the cashiers.
The buyer in the video was wearing a correctional officer's uniform for the private security firm Corrections Corporation of America
Corrections Corporation of America
Corrections Corporation of America is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. The company is the largest private corrections company in the United States and manages more than 60 facilities with a designed capacity of 90,000...
. Video and stills from both Wal-Marts were compared and the same man was seen entering and exiting the Wal-Mart at the time of the earlier purchase. The police used this footage to produce a front-and-back composite image of the suspect, and subsequent queries to the private correctional company's human resources
Human resources
Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...
department led to the identification of the buyer as David R. Stewart, a married father of five children.
During his questioning by police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
, Stewart insisted he'd never bought a calling card
Calling card
Calling card may refer to:* Visiting card, a card originally used socially to signify a visit made to a house if the occupant were absent, or as an introduction for oneself; the precursor to the modern business card...
, but detectives found one in his house that had been used to call nine restaurants in the past year, including a Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...
in Idaho Falls, on the day its manager was reportedly duped. Police also found dozens of applications for police department jobs, hundreds of police magazines, and police-type uniforms, guns
Güns
Güns or Guens may refer to:* Kőszeg, Hungary * Kőszeg Mountains, Hungary * Akiva Güns , birth name of Akiva Eger, a Hungarian-Polish rabbi- See also :* Guns * Gün, a surname...
and holsters, indicating that being or becoming a police officer
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
was possibly a fantasy of the suspect.
After his arrest, Stewart was extradited to Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
to face charges of impersonating a police officer, and solicitation
Solicitation
Literally, solicitation means: 'urgently asking'. It is the action or instance of soliciting; petition; proposal. In criminal law, it most commonly refers to either the act of offering goods or services, or the act of attempting to purchase such goods or services...
of sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
. He was not convicted, with both the defense and prosecution attorneys saying that a lack of direct evidence may have affected the jury's decision.
Aftermath
Summers ended her relationship with Nix soon after the incident, and was fired from McDonald's for violating a corporate policy prohibiting (a) non-McDonald's personnel from entering the restaurant's office, and (b) conducting strip searches. Kim Dockery was transferred to another location. McDonald's took no further punitive action against any of the employees involved in the incident.Nix, remorseful for his part in the crime, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...
and other crimes in February 2006 in exchange for his testimony against Stewart. Because he was the principal perpetrator of the beatings and engaged in the sex act, he received a five-year sentence, with a minimum of 2 years in prison. Summers entered an Alford plea
Alford plea
An Alford plea in United States law is a guilty plea in criminal court, where the defendant does not admit the act and asserts innocence...
to a charge of unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor
Misdemeanor
A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...
, and received one year of probation
Probation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
. She was not charged with any sex-related crimes.
The victim underwent therapy to address post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumaticstress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,...
depression related to her abuse, including prescription anti-depressants. She abandoned her plans to attend the University of Louisville
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General...
, where she had anticipated declaring pre-med. In an interview with ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
she said that, after her abuse, she "felt dirty" and had difficulty making and maintaining friendships because she wouldn't "allow anyone to get too close to her."
Since Stewart's arrest, police reported that the calls have stopped. Stewart remains a suspect in similar cases throughout the USA.
Three years after the incident, still undergoing therapy, the former employee sued McDonald's for $200 million for failing to protect her during her ordeal. Her grounds were that McDonald's corporate headquarters was aware of the danger and possibility of the hoax because it had defended itself against lawsuits for similar incidents at its restaurants in four other states that had suffered similar hoaxes at least two years before the Mt. Washington attack, and had not taken the appropriate action directed by its own chief of security as outlined in his memo to McDonald's upper management. Summers also sued McDonald's for failing to warn her of the previous hoaxes, asking for $50 million.
McDonald's based its defense on four points: (1) Summers deviated from the company's management manual, which prohibits strip search
Strip search
A strip search is the stripping of a person to check for weapons or other contraband.-Legality of strip searches:...
es, and therefore McDonald's should not be responsible for any action conducted by Summers outside the scope of her employment; (2) workman's compensation statutes prohibit employees from suing employers; (3) Nix, who actually performed the acts, was not a McDonald's employee; and (4) the victim did not remove herself from the situation, contrary to common sense.
The civil trial began September 10, 2007 and ended October 5, 2007 when a jury awarded to the victim $5 million in punitive damages and $1.1 million in compensatory damages and expenses. Summers was also awarded $1.1 million. The jury decided that McDonald's and the unnamed caller were each 50 percent at fault for the abuse to which the victim was subjected. McDonald's and its attorneys were sanctioned for withholding evidence pertinent to the outcome of the trial.
In November 2008, McDonald's was also ordered to pay $2.4 million in legal fees to plaintiffs' lawyers. On November 20, 2009, the Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld the jury's verdict, but reduced the punitive damages award to Summers. McDonald's appealed to the Kentucky Supreme Court; while the petition was pending in 2010, Ogborn settled with McDonald's for $1.1 million, dropping her claim for punitive damages.
After the decision, McDonald's revised its manager's training program to better emphasize awareness of prank phone calls and protection of the rights of employees. While the training had already included such topics, none of the two managers and three junior employees involved in the hoax could recall much about it.
See also
- PranknetPranknetPranknet, also known as Prank University or Prank U, is a Canadian-based anonymous prank calling virtual community responsible for damage to hotels and fast food restaurants of more than $60,000 as well as multiple instances of telephone harassment. It was founded by a man who later referred to...
- Milgram experimentMilgram experimentThe Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of notable social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that...
- Stanford prison experimentStanford prison experimentThe Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was conducted from August 14th-20th, 1971, by a team of researchers led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University...
, which was an experiment emphasizing how ordinary people can become sadistic. - VoyeurVoyeurismIn clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....
, a form of sexual fantasySexual fantasyA sexual fantasy, also called an erotic fantasy, is a fantasy or pattern of thoughts with the effect of creating or enhancing sexual feelings; in short, it is "almost any mental imagery that is sexually arousing or erotic to [an] individual"...
, a variant of which was exercised by the caller. - Interrogation sceneInterrogation sceneAn interrogation scene is a form of BDSM roleplay in which the participants act out the parts of torturer and victim. As in real life torture chambers throughout the world over, the "torturer" uses threats, humiliation and physical pain to extract whatever information he/she believes the "victim"...
and erotic humiliationErotic humiliationErotic humiliation is the consensual use of psychological humiliation in a sexual context, whereby one person gains arousal or erotic excitement from the powerful emotions of being humiliated and demeaned, or of humiliating another; often in conjunction with sexual stimulation of one or both...
, forms of sexual fantasySexual fantasyA sexual fantasy, also called an erotic fantasy, is a fantasy or pattern of thoughts with the effect of creating or enhancing sexual feelings; in short, it is "almost any mental imagery that is sexually arousing or erotic to [an] individual"...
implied in the McDonald's legal defense of the Kentucky incident lawsuit.
Sources
, original ABC News report on Kentucky incident- Milgram, S. Obedience to authority, Harper & Row, 1974.
- Cialdini, R. Influence: Science and practice, Allyn & Bacon, 2000.
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