Thread by @keikoinboston

1. Just skimmed Amy Cooper's complaint against her former employer which you can find at the bottom of this article. Should be interesting to see how this case goes.

I'll highlight a few things below.

https://twitter.com/lawcrimenews/status/1397679428109541380

2. For those who missed or don't remember this case, Amy Cooper was the white dog owner who was caught on video by Christian Cooper (no relation), a black birder, having a meltdown in the Ramble section of Central Park last May.

3. They were having a confrontation over Amy's dog being off-leash, which isn't permitted in the Ramble. Christian had reportedly asked her to leash her dog, she refused, and things escalated.

4. Amy surrendered Henry temporarily to the rescue where she'd adopted him after public concern over her treatment of Henry in the video.

The rescue returned Henry to her in June after finding him in "good health".

cbsnews.com/news/rescue-or…

5. Amy lost her job as a portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton after they said they'd conducted an internal investigation, which her lawsuits alleges they lied about. Reportedly they didn't interview her, Christian, or anyone else.

6. Amy’s lawsuit alleges:

- Multiple counts of race & gender discrimination under various laws
- Defamation
- Intentional infliction of emotional distress
- Negligence

7. Amy's lawsuit calls Christian "an overzealous birdwatcher" "with a history of aggressively confronting dog owners in Central Park who walked their dogs without a leash," and seeks to paint Amy's reaction as a reasonable response to Christian's aggression.

8. It goes on to say that it was Christian's "practice and intent to cause dog owners to be fearful for their safety and the safety of their dogs".

9. The lawsuit quotes from a statement from Jerome Lockett, who described himself in an email to NBC last year as "a 30 year old African American dog owner living in NYC" who "frequently" takes his dog to Central Park with a white male friend and his dog.

10. Lockett relates his own negative experience with Christian on another day as well as saying he has two white friends who won't come forward because they're afraid of being "seen as some "Karen" or whatever". His full email is included in Exhibit A.

11. NBC confirmed yesterday that "Lockett gave the statement to NBC News on the record last year." but I haven't located coverage of this from last year.

nbcnews.com/news/us-news/w…

12. The lawsuit says that Franklin Templeton didn't obtain the minutes of New York City Park Board meetings and quoted Christian as having said: "it has gotten ugly between birders and unleashed dog walkers." The minutes are not included in the exhibits & there's no date.

13. While this does add a bit more dimension to the story, it's important to remember that Amy was charged with filing a false police report.

14. The charges were dropped after Amy completed "psychoeducation and therapy" sessions with a therapist at the Critical Therapy Center as part of a restorative justice diversion program.

criticaltherapy.org

gothamist.com/news/judge-dis…

15. Some victims participate in restorative justice. Christian didn't.

16. There's a whole section under "Factual Background" dedicated to "The Destruction of Plaintiff's Life" which mentions Amy was investigated by the CFA Institute, an international association for investment professionals, ...

17. ... accuses Franklin Templeton's "telephone system" of providing callers with Amy's personal cell phone number, and quotes from a misogynistic text message she received on her personal cell phone.

The lawsuit also seeks to hold them responsible for her suicidal ideation.

18. While what happened to Amy Cooper was completely disproportionate to her actions, it's not clear if her former employer can be held responsible for everything she's alleging in this lawsuit. But it'll be an interesting case to watch.

19. Franklin Templeton isn't alone in firing employees for out of work behavior that goes viral and is brought to their attention internally and/or by a public mob.

20. Clarification:

I didn’t realize that Amy Cooper was charged for filing a false police report not based on the 911 call Christian recorded her end of but for a second call in which she claimed he “tried to assault her”.

nbcnews.com/news/us-news/w…

21. While we don’t know what happened before or after Christian was recording, "When responding officers arrived, Ms. Cooper admitted that the male had not “tried to assault” or come into contact with her."

manhattanda.org/d-a-vance-amy-…

22. Franklin Templeton made the decision to terminate Amy in less than 24 hours.

Amy’s second 911 call wasn’t made public until the Manhattan DA filed charges against her on 10/14/20 and put out this press release.

https://twitter.com/FTI_US/status/1265348185201008641

23. So it seems the decision to terminate may have been based on what Christian captured on video — her telling him that she intended to file a false police report highlighting his race and then her performance on the first call in which …

24. … she tries to make it sounds like she’s in imminent danger.

That alone might have been enough but the public backlash is probably why they moved so quickly to disassociate the firm from Amy.