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A South Carolina woman has filed a civil lawsuit against an Ohio-based Circle K and one of its employees following an assault, alleging it resulted in a miscarriage.
What happened between Rev. Deria Francis and the Circle K employee?
Charles Boyk Law Offices filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on behalf of Rev. Deria Francis, a minister, who was eight weeks pregnant at the time of the “violent attack” on May 23 at a Circle K in Bowling Green, Ohio, according to court documents. Francis’ husband, Dathan Stukes, was also listed as a plaintiff in the suit.
The couple, who is Black, resides in Hopkins, South Carolina. They were traveling with their two minor children, ages 13 and 8, to Detroit for a church conference and decided to stop at the Circle K located at 1602 E. Wooster St., the complaint states.
Francis, a Circle K rewards member, forgot to enter her number and asked the cashier, Shannon Walsh, a white woman, to cancel the transaction so she could add it.
Francis alleges she had a miscarriage due to the attack
Walsh then denied the request, stating that it could take a few days for the funds she had already spent to be returned to her bank account. Francis asked again, saying that she did not care about the timeframe and wanted to use her rewards. Walsh allegedly became agitated, yelled at Francis to “get the f**k out” of the store, and threw a jar full of change that then struck Francis in the stomach, the suit states.
When Francis tried to leave, Walsh allegedly came from behind the counter and grabbed her by her hair. Walsh then allegedly slammed Francis into a drink container near the register, began striking her with a closed fist, and started calling her racial slurs. The complaint states the incident occurred in front of Francis’ two children.
Francis allegedly had significant bruising on her body, and later that week, she had a miscarriage. Police and emergency medical services arrived on the scene. Walsh was charged with assault, later pleaded no contest to negligent assault and was required to undergo anger management training, according to WTOL and the complaint.
‘No family should ever experience such brutality’
The lawsuit claims Circle K negligently hired an unfit employee, leading to an assault that allegedly caused Francis to lose her pregnancy and experience lasting physical and emotional injuries, and that allegedly traumatized her children, who witnessed the incident, per the suit.
“This never should have happened. Rev. Francis was a pregnant mother simply trying to redeem a routine store loyalty reward. Something Circle K actively encourages its customers to do,” lead attorney Charles E. Boyk said in a statement obtained by WTOL. “Instead, she was violently attacked, subjected to racist slurs, and suffered the unimaginable loss of her unborn child. No family should ever experience such brutality, especially in a business that claims to serve the public.”
Francis and her husband are seeking compensatory damages, citing physical injuries, emotional distress and the loss of the pregnancy.
