A South Seattle woman who was handcuffed in front of other shoppers and wrongly accused of shoplifting during the grand opening of a Rainier Valley Safeway store has won a $750,000 punitive-damage award against the grocery chain.
Patricia Groom, 49, was awarded an additional $7,500 - $5,000 levied against Safeway and $2,500 against an off-duty Seattle Police officer working security at the store - to compensate for injuries including nerve damage to her wrist and post-traumatic stress.
But because of a rare and usually terminal respiratory ailment, Groom was too sick to be in court Monday to hear the jury's unanimous verdict.
One of her lawyers, Elena Garella, said Groom, diagnosed about five years ago with an inherited form of emphysema that has greatly reduced her lung capacity, took ill while awaiting the jury's return in U.S. District Court in Seattle after a five-day trial. She later was hospitalized.
The award was the result of a July 20, 1995, incident, when Seattle Police Officer Michael Hori, working off-duty but in uniform at the store, stopped Groom, accused her of slipping a $20 package of tiger prawns into her purse, and demanded that she turn the handbag over to him.
Garella and Arnold Barer, who also represented Groom, said when Groom told the officer, a 22-year veteran of the police force, she had placed the prawns in a friend's shopping cart, the officer spun her around, grabbed her purse and emptied it.
Then - in front of other shoppers - he handcuffed her and marched her to the front of the store, even though it was clear the handbag contained no prawns, Garella said.
"Her purse is her lifeline and she was not about to give it to anybody, especially since she had done nothing wrong," she added.
Cherie Myers, Safeway's local director of public affairs, yesterday said the company intends to appeal the punitive-damage award.
Groom was too frail to shop alone at the time and brought a friend to the store with her, Garella said.
The attorney said that while Hori was marching Groom to the front of the store, Groom began to cry, telling him he was hurting her. "She was gasping for air, and asking for her medication," Garella said, adding that her doctor had testified during the trial that Groom had experienced "a sensation like drowning."
By awarding mostly punitive damages, which are meant as punishment, "the jury has sent a message," Garella said. "The message is you do not use the authority of the state to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights."
Groom's lawyers argued that Safeway neglected to train off-duty police officers working security in its stores, even though the company has a written policy on shoplifting.
But Myers said Safeway didn't think additional training was necessary.
Garella said Safeway had made repeated offers to settle the case out of court, "but she refused," the attorney said, "because for her it was more important to send a message than to get the money."
UPDATE: On July 18, 1997 the Federal Judge who heard the case
applied recent United States Supreme Court rulings to grant Safeway a new
trial unless Ms. Groom accepted a reduced punitive damages award. Thereafter
Safeway and Ms. Groom entered into a settlement agreement resolving the
case. Both parties state they are satisfied with the resolution.
