A Jacksonville woman is suing department store Dillard's, accusing the company of false imprisonment and racial profiling for falsely accusing her of shoplifting.
Destiny Aeinpour was shopping at the Dillard's in the St. Johns Town Center with her infant son on Oct. 1, 2018, when she was approached by an employee in the store who accused her of stealing a dress she had on her son's stroller.
Aeinpour showed the employee a receipt for the dress, as well as a tag on the item showing it had come from another store in the same plaza, but that didn't stop a manager and Dillard's loss prevention from getting involved.
"It was definitely one of the most mortifying and emotional times of life," she said. "When you're a new mother, all you want to do is protect your child. And when you have no idea what's going on, you're being yelled at, you're being accused for something that you didn't do, no one is listening to you."
Dillard's employees escorted Aeinpour to a room where they told her she was being detained and could not call her husband. After eventually confirming that she had not stolen the dress from their inventory, Dillard's released Aeinpour.
The ordeal lasted less than an hour, but Aeinpour says it left emotional damage, which is the basis of the lawsuit she filed Wednesday against the corporation.
She's being represented by civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump, who's earned national attention for representing the families of people injured in high-profile cases of police violence and brutality, and Jasmine Rand.
The duo are also representing a Tennessee woman who says she was racially profiled and illegally detained at a Dillard's in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2020 and publicly searched without her consent.
"I've never felt so degraded and humiliated in my life," said Artelia Phelps, who joined Aeinpour on a virtual news conference Wednesday. "You hear about these things happening all the time to Black and brown people, but when it actually happens to you, it feels differently."
Both lawsuits claim Dillard's has a national pattern of falsely accusing Black customers of shoplifting.
Dillard's declined a request for comment, citing a policy against discussing pending legal cases.
