(CNN) APRIL 23, 2020 —Two African American women who allege that management at a Pennsylvania golf course mistreated them when they called police because they were playing too slow have now filed a lawsuit claiming racial and gender discrimination.
Myneca Ojo and Karen Crosby, two of the five women involved in the 2018 incident, filed the lawsuit on Monday against Brew Vino LLC, which owns Grandview Golf Course, as well as several employees involved. The lawsuit alleges that an owner told a member of their group that they weren’t keeping pace and treated them differently than other players on the course, who the lawsuit says were Caucasian and male.
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and requests compensatory and punitive damages but does not list a specific amount.
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An investigation by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission found that the women had probable cause that they were “profiled, harassed, evicted and subjected to different terms and conditions of service because of their protected classes,” and granted them the right to sue, according to the lawsuit.
CNN has reached out to Brew Vino for comment but has not received a response.
Women were told they weren’t following policy, lawsuit says
According to the lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the plaintiffs had recently bought memberships to the golf course and decided to put them to use for the first time on April 21, 2018. Although their group was one person more than the Grandview’s usual limit, the person who checked them in allowed them to proceed. Frost had delayed play earlier in the day, the lawsuit says, so their tee time was pushed from 10 a.m. until sometime between 10:39 a.m. and 11:12 a.m.
Once they were two holes in the game, Steve Chronister, who identified himself as the owner of the course, told one member of the group that they were moving too slowly, the lawsuit alleges. The women contend in the lawsuit that they weren’t playing slowly, and say one of them told Chronister that he was treating them differently than the other players on the course.
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After this interaction, the lawsuit alleges that Chronister called 911 to say they weren’t following policy. An officer came to the location, but Chronister asked her not to confront them because they had moved ahead, the lawsuit says.
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After completing the first nine holes, three of the five women left because of their experience earlier in the day, the lawsuit alleges. Myneca Ojo and Sandra Thompson continued playing the rest of the course, the lawsuit says. When another group arrived at tenth tee at the same time as them, the lawsuit states, the group told them to go ahead because they were taking a break. When the women started to play, Jordan Chronister, an employee at Grandview, came up to the women and told them they could not “cut people off,” according to the lawsuit.
Read more at CNN.com
