Jury Gets Case in Strip Search at McDonald's ; Ex-Employee Seeking $200M in Suit Over Phone Call Hoa

Oct 05, 01:19 PM

Current Headlines: By BRETT BARROUQUERE, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. A jury on Thursday began deliberating the case of a woman who said she was forced to strip in a McDonald's back office at the behest of a caller posing as a police officer.

Louise Ogborn, 21, is suing the fast-food giant, accusing it of failing to warn her and other employees about the hoaxer, who already had struck other McDonald's outlets and other fast-food restaurants across the country.

Ogborn is seeking $200 million in compensatory and punitive damages. McDonald's has said Ogborn is responsible for whatever damages she suffered for not realizing it was a hoax. After a four- week trial, the jury starting deliberations Thursday.

After about two hours of deliberations, jurors asked to review some of the evidence.

Judge Thomas McDonald said he would allow jurors to see a copy of the employee handbook that Ogborn signed, but denied requests to review a map showing the locations where other hoax calls were received and a timeline of events.

The jury forewoman also told the judge that one juror wanted to see a clip of the security video taken of the strip search. McDonald directed jurors to review other evidence first, but said if there still were questions, he would allow the jury to view the video clip.

Ogborn was 18 and working at a McDonald's in April 2004 when she was forced to strip after a man called the restaurant, claiming he was investigating a theft. At one point during the 3-hour search, the assistant manager's boyfriend was left to handle the phone call.

Donna Jean Summers, the assistant manager, was convicted of unlawful imprisonment. Her former fianc, Walter Nix Jr., is serving a five-year sentence for sexual abuse and other crimes.

Summers and Kim Dockery, who also was an assistant manager at the restaurant, are named as defendants in Ogborn's civil suit. Summers also has sued McDonald's and is asking the jury to award her $50 million.

A Florida man, David Stewart, was acquitted last year on charges of impersonating an officer, soliciting sodomy and soliciting sexual abuse in the incident.

During the trial, jurors watched more than an hour of a security video of the hoax call. On the video, a nude Ogborn is shown performing sex acts on herself and Nix.

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