Denny’s Breaks Bias Vow on Day of Accord : Equality: A restaurant in Maryland refused to serve six blacks on April 1. The chain settled a discrimination case in California the same date.

Denny’s restaurant chain, which pledged to eliminate discrimination against black customers by signing a court agreement in California with the Justice Department last month, is in trouble with the government again.

Federal officials said Friday that a Denny’s restaurant in Annapolis, Md., near the U.S. Naval Academy, denied service to six black Secret Service agents on the same day it entered into the court settlement on April 1.

In its agreement with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the national chain acknowledged that there had been “isolated customer concerns” about some policies it said had been abandoned. It said it would reinforce existing nationwide policies requiring equal treatment of all customers, regardless of race.

The settlement was executed in federal court in San Francisco because most discrimination complaints had arisen in California, but the agreement covered all of Denny’s nearly 1,500 restaurants.

According to James P. Turner, acting head of the Civil Rights Division, just hours before the signing, Denny’s discriminated against black federal agents who were in Annapolis to prepare for a visit by President Clinton.

Six on-duty agents seated at a table were not allowed to order breakfast despite their repeated requests for service, law enforcement sources said. At the same time, white agents at a nearby table were waited on. The black agents walked out after waiting for more than an hour.

Clinton later that day addressed a meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors at the Naval Academy but apparently knew nothing of the incident.

White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos said Friday: “Obviously a court will have to make the final determination about what happened, but the President is strongly against any discriminatory practices against anyone. Discrimination against black Secret Service agents would be a very serious problem.”

Turner, in a statement, said he was particularly upset by recent complaints from the agents because the court-approved consent decree “was designed to prevent just this kind of racial discrimination.” The department will send a letter to the company Monday demanding “a complete explanation,” he said.

Denny’s officials at company headquarters in Spartanburg, S.C., could not be reached for comment Friday night. But Jerome J. Richardson, chairman of TW Services Inc., parent of Denny’s, insisted last month that there was no pattern of discrimination in his company.

“Our agreement with the Justice Department is an affirmation of our commitment to treating all customers fairly, and we intend to go even further with our own programs,” Richardson said at the time.

Turner said the Secret Service agents “will be seeking a more complete personal remedy in private litigation,” referring to a lawsuit that may be filed next week. “But we intend to use our authority to the fullest to ensure that incidents like this do not recur in any part of this company’s activities,” he said.

A separate class-action lawsuit against Denny’s on behalf of 32 black California customers is pending in federal court in San Jose. In that action, the customers allege that Denny’s required blacks to pay a cover charge in order to be seated, refused to honor its free “birthday meal” offer to blacks and often threatened or forcibly removed black customers.