Fresno jury says Chipotle owes former manager $7.97 million for wrongful termination
For years, Jeanette Ortiz was a loyal, hardworking general manager for Chipotle Mexican Grill on Shaw Avenue across from the Fresno State campus.
But in January 2015, Ortiz was fired, accused of stealing $626 in cash from the restaurant's safe, said a lawyer for Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. There was even video evidence to prove Ortiz's theft, the lawyer said.
But when Ortiz denied stealing the money and asked to see the video evidence, her bosses at Chipotle declined. Instead, the company destroyed the video evidence, said Fresno attorneys Warren Paboojian and Jason Bell, who represent Ortiz in a wrongful termination case she brought against the fast-food giant.
On Thursday, Fresno County Superior Court jurors ordered Chipotle to pay Ortiz nearly $8 million in damages, ruling that she was not a thief, but was a victim of a scheme to fire and defame her for filing a worker's compensation claim for a job-related injury to her wrist caused by carpal tunnel syndrome.
Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article210797869.html
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