Discrimination Suit Aims at 2 Southland Denny’s : Litigation: New charges of racial bias by 5 San Diego blacks come after restaurants’ minority recruitment agreement with NAACP.

In a new allegation of racial discrimination at Denny’s, five San Diego African-Americans--including a Navy officer and a Democratic Party official--have filed a $10-million federal discrimination lawsuit against two Southland restaurants.

The suit, filed Thursday in U.S District Court in Santa Ana, charges that employees at Denny’s in Costa Mesa and San Diego denied “African-American citizens the ability to use and enjoy public accommodations on the same basis as white persons.”

Employees at the two restaurants referred inquiries Thursday to a toll-free corporate number. Denny’s officials at corporate offices in Irvine and Spartanburg, S.C., where the restaurant chain is based, were unavailable for comment.

The charges are the first aimed at the Denny’s chain in Southern California. The company has been accused in recent months, however, of racial discrimination at its restaurants across the nation. Among those who have complained are six black Secret Service agents.

The increasing number of allegations prompted Denny’s parent corporation, Flagstar Corp., to sign an agreement with the NAACP on July 1 pledging to institute minority recruitment and minority management training programs.

In the latest revelation, Jerry Steering, a civil rights lawyer in the law office of Beverly Hills attorney Melvin Belli, said that his clients were harassed or ignored by white employees in late 1992.

“It is very distressing to know that with all the progress made since the civil rights revolution, this can happen to people in Southern California, especially at a big chain like Denny’s,” Steering said.

The suit is based on three separate incidents. The first two occurred at a downtown San Diego restaurant in October, and the third happened in December in Costa Mesa, according to court documents.

On Oct. 17, Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Ann West and a friend, Marva Alexander, walked into the San Diego restaurant, sat at a table and gave the waitress their orders, the suit states. A few minutes later, the waitress returned and told the women that they had to pay for their food in advance.

The manager told West and Alexander that the company’s policy was to require advance payment, though the two women pointed out that none of the white customers appeared to be held to the same policy, court documents say.

Six days later, Karen Lorraine Huff, a San Diego Democratic Party official, and Eugene Cureton went to the same restaurant and were also told about the pay-first policy, the court documents state.

In both instances, the customers paid for the food before it was served to them, the documents say.

In the third incident, Leon Youngblood of San Diego was in Orange County and stopped to eat at Denny’s on 17th Street in Costa Mesa. Though the restaurant was only a third full, the suit says, Youngblood waited to be seated.

About 25 minutes later, while Youngblood still waited, a white couple entered the restaurant and were immediately seated, according to the suit. When Youngblood complained, manager Aaron Bond told him to call an 800 number to file a complaint, the suit states.

Instead, Youngblood called the Costa Mesa Police Department, the suit states.

“This was a rotten thing to do to somebody,” Steering said, adding that the Costa Mesa police report will be used as evidence in the case. “It is a simple, downright malicious thing to do to another human being. I think everybody agrees with that, including Denny’s.”

Denny’s officials have said they sent a clear signal that the company will not tolerate discrimination. In its agreement with the NAACP last week, parent company Flagstar said it will create 325 management positions at its 2,000 restaurants nationwide to be filled by minorities. In addition, the company promised to grant minorities ownership in at least 53 of its restaurants by 1997.

A day after the agreement with the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, however, a district judge in San Jose refused to dismiss a class-action suit against Denny’s by 32 patrons in California.

The San Jose suit was triggered by a 1991 incident in that city in which a Denny’s manager is accused of demanding that a group of black students pay a cover charge to be seated and that they pay for their meals in advance.

It includes an affidavit from Doris Pickford, mother of New York Jets defensive back Eric Thomas. Pickford said that in May of that year she was required to wait at a Sacramento Denny’s while white customers who arrived after her were being seated.

That same month, six black Secret Service officers in Annapolis, Md., complained that whites were served more quickly.

Other complaints have been filed in North Carolina, Virginia and Florida.

Denny’s attorneys have 20 days to respond to the Santa Ana complaint, filed with District Judge Alice Marie Stotler, Steering said.

He said that, though the Southern California incidents occurred last year, he did not file the suit until this week because he needed time to research the complaints and prepare the case.

“Federal cases take a lot of work,” he said. “You don’t file lawsuits (in federal court) that you don’t think you can win.”