Red Onion Agrees to Pay $390,000 in Racism Suit

In the latest chapter in a two-year dispute over admission policies, the Red Onion restaurant chain agreed Friday to pay a total of $390,000 to 26 people who sued the company claiming they were denied admission to the nightclubs because of their race.

In agreeing to the settlement, the company admitted no wrongdoing, according to Red Onion attorney William A. Kurlander. Each of the 26, most of whom are black or Latino, will receive $15,000 in the agreement approved by Orange County Superior Court Judge Samuel B. Taylor Jr.

“It’s a compromise and I believe everyone can be happy with it,” Kurlander said. “There may have been acts of discrimination on the part of individual doormen, but we are training employees to be more racially and culturally sensitive.”

Russell S. Kerr, who represented all but one of the patrons in the consolidated lawsuits, said he is satisfied with the outcome.

Kerr said the case was beneficial because it focused public attention on the subtle ways in which racism may be practiced.

“We believe that the publicity will deter some practices of racial discrimination that went undetected in the past,” Kerr said. “This lawsuit has revealed evidence that Red Onion employees were instructed to turn away minorities at the door by refusing to accept valid identification for proof-of-age requirements and by selective enforcement of the dress code.

‘Use Whatever Excuse’

“They were told to use whatever excuse necessary to keep the racial balance predominantly, if not exclusively, white.”

Most of the alleged acts of discrimination occurred at the Santa Ana Red Onion, Kerr said. In Orange County, the Red Onion chain also operates restaurants in Fullerton and Huntington Beach.

Marshall Davis, 23, said he was pleased the complainants and the chain were able to reach a settlement rather than going through a lengthy court trial. Davis, a recent graduate of USC, said he was not allowed into the Santa Ana nightclub in 1986 because he was told the picture on his driver’s license did not look like him.

“I talked with my attorney and he said this is about as much as we could get,” Davis said. “There is not any amount of money that can help the feelings I have. But I’m more aware of (racial discrimination) for the next time it happens.

“It’s here and it’s something, being black, I have to deal with. There will always be barriers, but I’ll overcome them.”

Adolfo Acosta, 27, who says he was denied admission to the Santa Ana nightclub six times in 1986, said he is unhappy with the settlement.

“I was discriminated against six times, pushed and harassed by the manager,” Acosta said. “Fifteen thousand dollars is nothing for a settlement. I wanted to go to trial, but everybody else agreed to it and I was by myself.”

Judge Taylor, who met with the parties three times in effort to reach a settlement, commended both sides for their diligence and good faith.

“It would have taken a very long time if it had gone to trial and a great deal of expense,” Taylor said. “This was a sensible resolution to a difficult matter.”

Attorney Milton Grimes, who represented Davis, commended the Red Onion for its efforts to rectify the problems, but he said problems still exist at the chain’s Santa Ana nightclub.

‘Rectified the Issue’

“We firmly believe the Red Onion did practice discrimination, but they have rectified and addressed the issue. They’ve done certain things to see that it doesn’t happen today,” Grimes said. But he added: “I’ve visited the Santa Ana club and minority hiring is not as widespread as we were led to believe.”

The discrimination complaints came to light in a series of newspaper articles in 1986, in which former and current Red Onion employees told of bosses who instructed them to “clean up the crowd” when it became “too dark.”

More than 70 black, Latino and Middle Eastern would-be customers filed complaints, claiming they had been stopped at the doors of the discos and told that the photographs on their driver’s licenses did not look like them or that they failed to meet the dress code.

The company has since settled many of the complaints and lawsuits and privately apologized to some customers, while consistently denying that employees ever discriminated against minorities. The Carson-based chain of 13 restaurants hired a consultant in 1986 to manage a scholarship program for minorities as part of a two-year company plan to address discrimination complaints.

In 1986, as part of a settlement with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the chain agreed to pay $500 each to 39 people who complained that they were barred because of racial and ethnic bias. As a result of that agreement, the agency terminated its inquiry into the admission policies of the Red Onion restaurants.

Last year, the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control briefly suspended liquor licenses at five of the chain’s outlets for “active racial discrimination” which, the agency’s investigator concluded, “appears to be the result of a conspiracy from the corporate president.”

That same year, the chain also reportedly paid $240,000 to six Iranian immigrants who sued for racial discrimination.

At least five other discrimination cases still are pending in Riverside County and in federal district court, Kurlander said.