Amy Cooper.Photo: Christian Cooper/Facebook
Amy Cooper, the New York City woman who made headlines last year after shecalled police on a Black birdwatcher in Central Park, has filed suit against her former employer, claiming thatthe company fired herwithout properly investigating the incident, and discriminated against her on the basis of her race and sex.
Cooper filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Franklin Templeton, its CEO and President Jenny Johnson and 10 John Does, accusing the financial services firm of making public statements that “created and nurtured” the characterization of Cooper as “a privileged white female ‘Karen.'”
“We believe the circumstances of the situation speak for themselves and that the Company responded appropriately,” the statement says. “We will defend against these baseless claims.”
Cooper made headlines on May 25, 2020, when an altercation withBlack birdwatcher Christian Cooper(no relation) went viral after it was captured on video.
In the video, Amy is seen calling the police on Christian after he asked her to leash her dog in a wooded area of Central Park where dogs are not allowed to be without a leash.
Amy was fired from Franklin Templeton, where she’d worked since 2015, the next day in a public statement that said the company “do[es] not tolerate racism of any kind.”
The lawsuit alleges that although the company publicly claimed to have conducted an investigation, it never actually did. The suit claims Franklin Templeton never interviewed anyone involved in the altercation, and did not make any attempt to obtain the full 911 calls from the New York Police Department.
The suit claims the company discriminated against Amy based on her race and sex.
“[Franklin Templeton’s] announcements to the effect that they had conducted an investigation, and that the investigation concluded indisputably that [Amy] was a racist when [the company] knew they had not conducted an investigation which concluded indisputably that [Amy] was a racist, was extreme and outrageous,” the suit claims.
The suit also includes a lengthy statement from a Black man named Jerome Lockett, who claimed to have had a similar encounter with Christian in Central Park involving his off-leash dog.
“Miss Cooper was judged and her life was destroyed without hearing her story, and without hearing Jerome Lockett, who begged national media to report his own experience with Mr. Cooper, and recounted, ‘This man IS threatening with his body language and screaming,'” Amy Cooper’s attorneys Andrea Paparella and Matthew Litt tell PEOPLE in a statement. “Having personally interacted with Mr. Cooper, Mr. Lockett understood how Miss Cooper could have ‘genuinely been afraid for her life,’ and ‘may not be, like [him], willing to physically defend herself or her dog.’ Mr. Lockett said, ‘If I wasn’t who I was, I would’ve called the police on that guy too.'”
Amyinitially apologized to Christianshortly after the incident, telling WNBC at the time: “It was unacceptable. And you know words are just words and I can’t undo what I did. I sincerely and humbly apologize to everyone. Especially to that man, his family.”
Christian, meanwhile,told CNN at the timethat he videotaped the encounter “because I thought it was important to document things.”
“Unfortunately we live in an era with things like Ahmaud Arbery, where Black men are seen as targets,” he said. “This woman thought she could exploit that to her advantage, and I wasn’t having it.”
In February, a single misdemeanor charge against Amy for falsely reporting an incident in the third degreewas reportedly droppedafter she completed five “psychoeducation and therapy” sessions.
source: people.com
