First, before you read what I have to say, go here:
Watch the 12 minuet video from ABC's 20/20 program. If you don't have 12 minuets to spare, I'll give ya the story in a nutshell: (but seriously, watch the video)
Louise Ogden was working at McDonald's when a manager, Donna Summers received a phone call from a man posing as a police officer. Over the phone, the "officer" told Summers to instruct 18 year old Ogden to strip search because allegedly some things had been stolen.
Summers complied, as did Ogden. Summers could no longer watch Ogden as instructed so she got her fiance' to keep an eye on Ogden. The fiance' took instructions from the "officer" over the phone, such as spanking Ogden on the bare behind, having her jump up and down to shake out anything, and have her perform oral sex on him.
Ogden sued McDonald's for $200 million, was awarded $6.1 million. Summers was fired, arrested and placed on a year of probation. She also sued McDonald's and was awarded $1.1 million.
The fiance' was sentenced to 5 years in prison and the caller was found and arrested for impersonating an officer and solicitation of sodomy. (huh?)
And now, my two cents...and some change
First of all, who believes a cop over the phone? Oh, you're a police officer? Sure, I'll do whatever you say.
Second of all, who does everything their told? Ogden says her parents taught her to follow the instructions of adults. Um, does that include placing your mouth on another man's... Ok, we're getting ugly here.
I believe this whole thing was nothing more than a hoax between all these people to get some money out of McDonald's. Let anyone tell me to strip, and the first thing out of my mouth is gonna be, um, oh I don't know...."NO!"
Let someone tell me to place my mouth on their penis, jump up and down and while naked, allow them to smack my bare behind and I'd probably smack them in the face. But that's just me.
So, is $200 million the cost of humility and sexual assault? A jury seems to think it's worth $6.1 million, which bring me to my next point....
Yeah, there's more....
Why is McDonald's responsible for this? Summers took the call, her fiance' sexually abused Ogden, and a man somewhere in Florida made the call to begin with. Just for the sake of argument, let's all assume this is all true and not some random scheme to get millions from a billion dollar corporation. JUST FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT! Because I truly believe that no somewhat-intelligent human being would believe a cop caller or strip down naked simply because they were told to do so.
So I asked my husband, Shawn about this. "If I were to kill someone at work, the owner would become somewhat responsible."
"Even though you had no prior convictions or no existing record?!" I stammered. "WHY?"
"Because he hired me. That's the deal with hiring."
There is NO way to know what an employee might do, or not do, how they might act, who they might hurt. Since when are employers responsible for the individual actions of others? Let's say if an employee hurts someone off of work property. The employer would not be responsible.
It reminds me of when I was in high school. They were fazing out the ability for us to leave during lunch. Why? Because a kid got into a wreck on his way home from school after hours. It was like, 5 pm or something. The school told us that they are responsible for our safety from the time we leave till the time we get home.
I was somewhat a smart aleck in school (it's gotten worse over the years) so I asked, point blank: "So I get into a car accident at 7pm, with my mom, in my mom's car... Are you guys responsible for that? Can I sue the school since I hadn't been home yet?"
The only answer I received was that campus would be closed for lunch.
I've doubted our legal system for as long as I have been aware of it. Keep your eye out while you're shopping, working, pulling weeds in the garden. You never know what's going to get you set for life.
5 comments:
Damian and I watched this. Made me sick. But I do believe McDonalds should be held responsible, but that is mostly because I know thats the law on that. I do find it sick that Donna Summers got $1 Million for her "distress" and the poor girl only got $5 Million. (Not that $5 Mill isn't a huge amount, but she deserved more in my opinion.)
There are people getting hurt and being humiliated every minuet of every day--does that mean they deserve money?
Should I go back to my old high school with a lawyer and sue them for the distress and humiliation I suffered because of other kids?
The share holders of McDonald's didn't do anything to this girl.
Summers, the fiance', and the caller are solely responsible for their own actions.
Since when does making the wrong choices award you $1 million?
This is the most ridiculous thing I've heard of! I haven't watched the clip yet...but I will as soon as I have time. Until then, here is my two cents worth: Everyone involved sounds pretty stupid and none of them should have gotten a dime. Haven't they heard of the word NO??? What happened to intelligent questions such as, "If you are really a police officer, why can't you come into the business?" or "Which station do you work at - can I have your name and badge number for verification?"
EXACTLY!
Okay - I just watched the video and I understand why the girl was awarded $...she is quite convincing and probably made a good witness for herself on the stand. Still, common sense should tell you not to strip at McDonalds just because some bozo on the phone tells you to!
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