RINDGE — A Massachusetts couple has filed a human rights complaint against Walmart after the wife was allegedly turned away by employees in Rindge because of her service dog.
Melissa Formica, 20, of Gardner, Mass., said she visited the Walmart in Rindge on May 1, but was told by an employee she couldn’t have her dog in the store. She and her husband have since filed a complaint with the N.H. Commission for Human Rights.
“They watched me walk in and one of them chased me down,” Formica said. “They said, ‘You can’t have your dog in here because it doesn’t have the proper leash.’ I showed her the paperwork (identifying the dog as a service dog), but she said that because it’s not a seeing eye or hearing dog, it’s not allowed in the store.”
Formica has a seizure disorder that her service dog, a 6-month-old black Labrador mix named Isabella, assists her with. Federal law requires that all service dogs be allowed in commercial establishments.
In Formica’s case, Isabella is trained to recognize the onset of a seizure before it happens, and alert Formica, she said.
Formica recalled one time in a mall when Isabella dragged them out of a store and sat her down on a bench, moments before she had a seizure. Isabella also alerted a neighbor once when Formica collapsed in her apartment building hallway.
During the incident in May, the Walmart employee allegedly told Formica she would have to put Isabella in the car while she shopped, which Formica said she refused to do.
“At that point I felt I was being watched,” she said. “I felt paranoid, and I felt completely disgruntled. People use service dogs for all kinds of conditions — diabetes, mental disorders and seizures.”
The Formicas said they filed the complaint with the N.H. Commission for Human Rights after Formica’s husband, Steven Formica, 29, spoke to a store manager in an attempt to resolve the situation.
“I felt like (a manager at the store) didn’t care,” he said. “His attitude and his demeanor on the phone were unprofessional.”
Christopher Kaczmarek, a Boston-based attorney for Walmart, submitted a response to the complaint in July, denying Formica’s charges.
In a letter to the commission, Kaczmarek stated that Formica entered the store carrying her dog, without a leash.
The letter also stated that, while an employee did approach Formica when she entered the store, the employee “simply asked her what kind of dog it was.
“Ms. Formica responded that it was a hearing and seeing eye dog,” Kaczmarek said in the letter. “The associate responded that the dog was ‘really cute’ and told Ms. Formica that she hoped her shopping experience at Walmart was a pleasant one.”
Kaczmarek’s statement says that Formica then “inexplicably began a rant towards the associate, stating that ... she did not have a vest or patch logo because she had just gotten the dog.”
Formica said she didn’t have the vest or patch often worn by service dogs for Isabella because it isn’t required by law.
The letter states that Formica then continued shopping in the electronics department before leaving the store a short time later.
Formica denies continuing to shop, carrying the dog into the store, or telling the employee that it was a seeing eye and hearing dog.
Steven Formica said he wants to view the store’s security camera tapes from that day to prove his wife’s claims.
The Formicas are in the process of submitting a rebuttal to Walmart’s response, they said. They’re also deciding whether to take their case to court.
Joni N. Esperian, executive director for the commission, said a party filing a complaint has six months to decide whether to keep its complaint with the commission, or transfer it to court.
If the complaint stays with the commission, “any number of things can happen,” Esperian said.
“The parties can decide to settle on their own, or they can use mediation (offered by the commission at no charge) at any stage,” she said. “Ultimately, a commissioner decides if there’s sufficient or insufficient evidence to find probable cause that discriminating occurred.”
Source : www.sentinelsource.com
