Posted on 08/14/2021 8:29:14 AM PDT by lightman
A Teaneck woman who was attacked and suffered a broken bone in her leg in Staples last summer after asking a fellow customer to put on a mask has filed a lawsuit against the business.
Margot Kagan, 55, says in court papers a lack of supervision and security left her “boxed in” and vulnerable to the woman who allegedly attacked her near the fax machines at the Hackensack store.
There was “no reasonable way to alight from a foreseeable event,” states the suit, filed last week in Superior Court of Bergen County.
“(The) foreseeable event was a fellow patron who berated and ultimately attacked (Kagan),” the suit states.
The incident occurred July 29 as the mother of two faxed paperwork from the store’s machines, Kagan told NJ Advance Media after the attack.
In an interview from her hospital bed last year, Kagan said she’d recently had a liver transplant and was worried about contracting the coronavirus.
“I said, ‘you’re endangering everyone by not wearing your mask’ and I put my head down and went back to faxing at the machine,” Kagan said days after the event.
Security video from a store camera shows the suspect walk around a plastic divider and confront Kagan.
“Next thing I know, she’s two feet away from me, screaming at me,” Kagan said. “I really didn’t understand what she was saying. I lifted my cane to keep her away from me.”
Video appears to show the suspect grabbing the frail woman and throwing her to the floor. “My knee broke while I was falling. I later learned it was my tibia,” Kagan said.
Police arrested Terri Thomas, 25, of Hackensack, and charged her with aggravated assault. The criminal case is pending in Superior Court, public records show. But Kagan has sued only the store, not Thomas.
The lawsuit alleges Staples was negligent in not providing security at the Hackensack store, which court papers describe as “a high crime area.” Staples did not immediately respond Friday morning to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
No DA would prosecute this, her lawyer would scream self defense.
Thanks for your service. Though Army, I was on Hahn and Spangdahlem AB's during my tour in Germany, from 77-81...loved it.
There it is.
Poke a poke a ghettopopotamus with a stick you will be attacked. It’s not about right or wrong, it’s just the way it is.
“This woman learned a hard lesson.”
You’re right, she learned several lessons. Hopefully one of them is that what white people can do to other white people with little repercussion is not the same as white people can do to black people without expecting repercussion. There are generally two completely different standards of conduct. The best thing to do is not engage unless you have no choice. “Disrespecting” them and then trying to poke them with a cane is probably not going to turn out good.
“If you are concerned for your health stay home.”
EXACTLY!!
If the “frail’ woman doesn’t say anything to the young woman none of this happens. The young woman was wearing a mask, though not properly, and was more than six feet away and moving away from her. Did the young woman over react? Yes most definitely, but only after being poked numerous times with the woman’s cane. She was arrested and charged with assault. But there are times when discretion is the better part of valor. This woman was in no danger from the young woman. If she was this fearful for her health then she should have stayed home and had someone else do the fax for her or put the document in an envelope and send it.
My wife, who has COPD and struggles with the masks, was cornered in a grocery store last winter by two women because she had moved to a corner of the store to pull her mask down so she could breathe. She was wearing her oxygen. She was very shaken when I found her and just wanted to leave. We finished our shopping together. If I had been with her when she was verbally assaulted someone would have been eating their mask. Luckily for these two Karens I was a couple of aisle over when it happened.
People need to learn to MYOB. If not then be prepared to deal with the consequences.
Lawyers approached the woman and said the money is in suing Staples, not the person who injured her.
Yes, the older woman was brutally attacked. People here want to blame the victim but IIRC she had cancer and had a compromised immune system.
I see people laughing and angry at the victim but no criticism of the assaulter with poor impulse control who violently attacks an elderly person and breaks her leg.
I remember watching a clip of this incident and wishing the two jackasses had beaten each other to death.
You think knocking down a person who simply asks you to wear a mask is okay? Especially an obviously frail older woman? What kind of mindset is that? Firstly, it’s immoral; it’s also criminal, since self-defense was not a factor.
I don’t think the store bears any responsibility, so the victim is wrong on that point. She should’ve stayed home in the vulnerable condition she’s in, but it’s possible she doesn’t have anyone to help her with what she was trying to get done.
This post and its replies are a valuable source for anyone compiling a compendium of the shitheels who have infested Free Republic over the years.
55 is elderly to you? How old are you?
Not sad, they were expensive and unnecessary.
The Karen was an idiot. I don’t condone violence and I have made it through 64 years on earth without getting in a single fight. I keep my mouth shut and my mind and eyes open. The Karen may or may not deserve what she got but she got it because she didn’t keep her mouth shut. It is hard not to laugh. Sorry.
The black woman obviously overreacted. I criticize her behavior. She should do time for assault. There was a cultural component to her reaction that people should understand before interacting. I am not judging any other cultures. I certainly don’t go around telling people to put masks on. It is hard not to laugh. Sorry.
The store had no way to control any aspect of the interaction. They would have had to be clairvoyant as far back as when they built the store to have prevented anything like that.
The fault is actually with Fauci who has been the point man on COVID since the very beginning way back when Obama was president. He helped create the virus and has been pushed out in front of the world as the messianic covid czar. He is still talking and nobody has yet shut him up. Even Trump didn’t shut him up and he could have. If Donald Trump made one mistake it was by not firing Fauci the first time he contradicted himself.
Mind your own business. Many women never learned that lesson because they never got a smash in the face in the schoolyard.
Usually it's Saturday night when they vent about how horrible American women are. I have to wonder what kind of relationship they had with their mother.
I would have done the same damn thing if she shoved that cane in my face.
The old lady instigated and escalated this entire interaction.
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