She said Starbucks fired her because she’s white. Jury agreed, awarding her $25.6 million

Starbucks has been ordered to pay more than $25 million to a former regional manager who sued the company for wrongful termination, saying she was fired because she is white.

The former employee, Shannon Phillips, said in a 2019 complaint that she had become a scapegoat in the company’s damage control efforts after a viral video showed two Black men being arrested at one of its Philadelphia coffee shops. The incident sparked outrage across the country and led the corporate behemoth to temporarily close its shops to conduct anti-bias training for employees.

After a six-day trial, a federal jury in New Jersey agreed unanimously on Monday to award Phillips $25 million in punitive damages and $600,000 in compensatory damages, according to Console Mattiacci Law, which represented her.

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In a statement, the firm said that Phillips had proved “by clear and convincing evidence� that punitive damages were warranted under New Jersey’s anti-discrimination law, and noted that she is also seeking damages for back and future pay, to be decided by the judge.

Laura Mattiaci, Phillips’ lead lawyer, declined to comment Wednesday, saying the case was “still open.�

Starbucks has denied firing Phillips because of her race, and declined to comment Wednesday.

The incident at the center of the case happened in April 2018, when Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, who are Black, went to a Starbucks in the Rittenhouse Square area of Philadelphia.

Nelson said he asked to use a bathroom and was told it was for paying customers only. An employee came to the men’s table and asked whether they wanted to order drinks. Robinson said he replied that they were OK and waiting for a business meeting.

A manager then called 911 to report “two gentlemen ... refusing to make a purchase or leave,� according to a recording of the call obtained by “Good Morning America,� which interviewed Nelson and Robinson about the arrest.

Both men said they never heard the manager inform them they had to leave.

An eight-minute video of the arrest shows three police officers in bicycle helmets standing around Nelson and Robinson’s table and asking questions before eventually arresting them and leading them away in handcuffs.

The video sparked national outrage, leading to protests inside and outside the Rittenhouse shop, and became a public relations crisis for Starbucks. Its chief executive issued a public apology, and the company closed stores nationwide for a day to hold anti-bias training for its 175,000 U.S. employees.

After the arrest, Phillips, who oversaw nearly 100 locations across Philadelphia, south New Jersey, Delaware and parts of Maryland, said in a 2019 complaint that she had taken steps to allay the community’s concerns and to keep staff and customers safe. She said those efforts included arranging a roundtable meeting with CEO Howard Schultz in Philadelphia and organizing teams of management-level employees to work at the approximately 20 Philadelphia locations because hourly workers feared going to work amid the protests.

A few weeks after the arrest, and after the company had reached a settlement with Nelson and Robinson in which it pledged to continue taking actions to address such incidents, Phillips said she was ordered to suspend a white manager who oversaw some of the chain’s Philadelphia stores and who had been accused of discriminatory conduct. The manager did not oversee the
Rittenhouse store. Phillips fought the allegations about the manager, which she said were “factually untrue.�

No action was taken against the manager of the Rittenhouse location, who is Black and who had promoted the store manager who made the 911 call that led to the men’s arrest, according to Phillips’ complaint.

Phillips said she was fired soon after she objected to the white manager’s suspension. The only reason she was given was that “the situation is not recoverable,� according to her complaint.

In her complaint, Phillips said her own race “was a motivating and/or determinative factor� in her firing. Starbucks denied that.

According to Console Mattiacci’s statement, the company said she had shown a lack of leadership during the crisis.

Nelson and Robinson did not face charges in the arrest. The men reached an undisclosed settlement with the company and an offer to complete their college degrees through Starbucks’ covered college tuition program for employees.