Woman Shoves Modell's with $500,000 Discrimination Lawsuit

Carmen Cruz decided to go to her local Modell's Sporting Goods store to buy her 13 year-old daughter a sports jersey she had been wanting. Upon examining the sports jersey Carmen Cruz was allegedly accused of trying to steal the sports jersey, which Carmen Cruz says was due to the black color of her skin.

A federal jury found that Carmen Cruz sincerely was discriminated against due to the color of her skin by Modell's Sporting Goods manager Gregory Kellerman in the incident with the sports jury. The federal jury awarded Carmen Cruz, 34, $500,000 for the discrimination lawsuit.

"I was innocent, and I was being discriminated against because of my race," Carmen Cruz said to Newsday.

Carmen Cruz and a friend of hers passed by the Modell's Sporting Goods store in search of a jersey for her daughters special birthday party in which the theme was "Jeans and Jerseys". When inside of the store, Gregory Kellerman, the manager at the time, bypassing over a dozen white customers, proceeded to engge in conversation with Carmen Cruz and asked her if she wanted any help with anything.

Carmen Cruz was supposedly trying to rip a security device off of the jersey which she wanted for her daughter, which essentially damaged it, and could have bene an attempt at shoplifting on Cruz's part. However, in court Gregory Kellerman never produced the jersey or the ripped security device as evidence to show the federal court, but they did bring in some pictures of the product and the security device that had been ripped off.

After the security device had been ripped off by Carmen Cruz, according to Gregory Kellerman, Gregory Kellerman than called the police and innitiated a citizens arrest on Kellerman's part. Carmen Cruz was then taken down to the police station where she was held in a holding cell, which Carmen Cruz notes were incredibly humiliating to her and her ego. When asked by Newsday about the jailing portion of the dilemma, Carmen Cruz said "That was devastating".

Carmen Cruz was acquitted of all crimainl charges in the case sometime in February of 2005, according to her lawyer Fredrick Brewington from Hempstead.

Doug Epstein, Gregory Kellerman's counsel had this to say via e-mail: "Modell's stands by its long history of treating people of all backgrounds equally and respectfully disagrees with the jury's decision".

Doug Epstein also notes that Modell's Sporting Goods may file an appeal.