$175,000 Awarded Worker Who Claimed False Imprisonment
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded a $175,000 payout Monday for a woman who claimed false imprisonment when store officials where she worked reportedly confined her when they suspected she stole items.
Attorney Richard M. Ball called it a “landmark” award for his client, Julie Fermino. But a Fedco attorney, Richard J. Mathias, said the award was “simply off the radar screen” and said that he planned to appeal.
Fermino filed the suit shortly after a June 1991 incident in the La Cienega Boulevard branch of the warehouse-style Fedco department store, where she worked as a cashier at the jewelry counter, Ball said.
The 30-year-old woman was pulled into a “windowless interrogation room” and told she could not leave until she gave up some allegedly stolen merchandise, he said.
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