Key Food Beacon Possible Victim Of Implicit Bias & Entitlement; Is This Arab Family Owned Business Unprotected?
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This article is 1st in a 3-part series that covers in the incident at Key Food Beacon on March 2, 2020, that was written about and published in the Highlands Current on March 25, 2022, after a settlement was reached on March 15, 2022 between a customer who was injured in what Key Food Beacon maintains was self-defense. This article takes a Deep Dive into that incident by relying on hundreds of pages of court documents, 3 police reports, multiple interviews, texts, and questions asked of people in authority who did not respond.
RELATED ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES
Possible Implicit Bias and Entitlement Leaves Arab-Owned Key Food Unprotected And Alone
Entitlement Drives Highlands Current To Chain Newsbox To Lamppost After Being Removed By Key Food
Letter To The Highlands Current Editor: Did Racial Bias Influence Key Food Article?
This article includes lots of dialogue in Q&A form so that you can get a feel for how people were feeling and how they described the situation. Not how a reporter could describe it. This article also includes a lot of explanation about why it was written. But sure to read. till. the. end.
Mo Dabashi (left) and Emad Dabashi (right) pictured in 2022, after the ordeal. Emad actually works somewhere else now, but you may notice his other brother working the deli. Not twins, but they look like twins.
Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth Martin
Please note: after the newspaper article published, and before this blog article did, some fellow business owners felt protective of Key Food Beacon, and wondered if a second article was in their best interest. Feeling in solidarity with Key Food, knowing that dealing with rude people in the public is unpredictable. They asked if Key Food would want this spotlight, again. The owners have told me yes.
After the newspaper article, Key Food Beacon began receiving threats from some Beacon community members by phone, email and in person to their family members. Key Food did not ask for this blog article. But has voiced approval in telling more of this story than what is shown in a picture and 20 second video.
This is that story.
Resources Used For This Article:
3 Police Reports (incident happened on 3/02/2020):
According to Mo Dabashi (manager), JB Said (co-owner) the police were “divided” in how the police responded to the first verbal altercation of the customer. A second verbal altercation happened hours later, which resulted in the customer’s injury.
Beacon Police Report 3/3/2020
Report Numbers: BL - 001734-20 CR-00232-20
Notable about this report:
1. Police Not Stopping Alvin: This Police Report states: "HQ advised units that the male inside the store was removed from the store earlier in the day and told not to return by the store owners. This agency was contacted about the previous incident and the male fled from the area prior to officers arrival." However, as seen in the parking lot video, and testified by the customer himself, the customer did not flee, and walked past the first officer who arrived. According to Emad’s testimony, when Emad asked the officer to tell the customer not to return, the police officer told Emad that there was nothing he could do, and that Emad would need to go to the station to file a report. Additionally, video and the customer’s testimony tell that he was not removed from the store, but had walked out after buying groceries. The customer stated in his lawsuit testimony that he and his mother “kept walking as if nothing happened” (Alvin had been verbally abusive in the store, causing the employee to ban him from returning).
2. Alvin’s Notable Intoxication: That the officers interviewing Alvin after he was put on the floor by Emad could not get much information from Alvin because he appeared to be “under the influence of alcohol,” which Alvin later identified which prescription medications he had taken with beer later in his testimony during his lawsuit.3. Damaged Property: In this report, “officers did observe multiple grocery items damaged and on the floor of Keyfoods aisle.” This is notable because in co-owner JB Said’s Police Report that pressed charges against Alvin Medina two days later was allegedly tossed out by Detective Sirrine because after seeing the 20 second video of the physical altercation, Detective Sirrine allegedly decided that since he did not see damaged property in the confined space of the video, and that JB was not there that day but was filing on behalf of his employees, Detective Sirrine told JB that his Police Report was “incredible” and could not be used, as described by JB in his testimony during Alvin’s lawsuit (see below). According to Alvin’s testimony, he wanted to press charges two days after his incident, but the police advised him that they would have to arrest him if he came to the station. Later, according to Alvin, they called him to pick him up to take his report. It is unknown if they did this after discounting JB’s filing of charges, and telling JB his Police Report was deemed “incredible.”
Key Food Franchise Co-Owner JB Said’s Police Report Against Alvin Medina 3/4/2020
Report Numbers: BL - 001734-20 CR-00238-20
In this report, JB files to press charges against Alvin. In it, he stated that Alvin damaged store property and called his employees “terrorists.” This report was later allegedly tossed out by Detective Sirrine.Alvin’s Police Report pressing charges against Emad 3/4/2020
Report Numbers: CR-00232-20 Blotter/CC No: BL-001734-20 Arrest Number: AR - 00082-20
In this report, Alvin had returned home from the hospital and had medical records to support a serious injury to his face. In this report, Alvin never admits to cursing or flipping the bird to Emad in response to not getting his combined deli salads, and accuses Emad of calling him a “faggot,” which Emad later denied in his testimony. In Alvin’s testimony, he admitted to saying “f-you” in response to not getting his deli salads in his testimony, and giving a hand gesture. Alvin allegedly said other threats such as “punch you in the face” but he did not mention those in this report.
4 Testimonies From Alvin’s Lawsuit: Emad Debashi, Alvin Medina, Mo Debashi, and JB Said.
Court Documents that the Highlands Current sent over.
Interviews with Mo Dabashi, JB Said and Junior Dabashi.
When the front page of a local newspaper that brands itself as “Beacon’s Hometown Newspaper” splashed a photo of a local Key Food Beacon employee, Emad Dabashi, in the final and most graphic seconds of a bad customer situation, that photo could have sealed his fate in ink as people wrote their own stories of what happened in their minds and out loud when gossiping with each other days and weeks after it was published.
As a frequent shopper of Key Food Beacon, I was taken aback by the photo, in the sense that seeing the 3 employees shown in this situation was highly unusual and out of character for them. At six o’clock on Friday morning, I read the article on my phone. I subscribe to the free newspaper as a monthly $10 donor, in order to support local media. I value their reporting. Which gets me the digital edition early.
From the article, I learned that this altercation happened two years ago in March 2020, and this month, on March 15, 2022, Alvin Medina, who was injured by Emad who maintains it was in self defense to Alvin’s alleged repeated threats and angry swinging of milk, filed a lawsuit days after his injury and was paid $95,000 by the insurance company of the local family business who owns the franchise of the Key Food Beacon.
After the settlement was signed on March 15, 2022, the customer started posting the video of his injury to his social media, making more verbal assaults. According to several people who saw his postings, he would publish the video, take it down, then publish it again with more angry words, one of which included a racial Arabic insult (see screenshot below). Seeing this bubbling in social media, the Highlands Current decided to run an article about it, according to Junior Dabashi of Key Food, who said that the reporter approached him with questions.
After reading the article, I was taken aback for a second time that the newspaper selected the photo that they did to represent the article. Not only that, but on the member-only digital edition of the newspaper that gets delivered via email on Thursdays at midnight, before the paper drops into newsboxes on Friday morning, the editor had issued a warning that the photo was graphic. The editor also noted that a second photo of a building demolition was disturbing. See more details about that here.
The Highlands Current editor hardly ever issues warnings like that. It was odd. As if he were excited to be publishing such a graphically disturbing photo to the expense of the people involved, with a researched yet abbreviated article to describe it.
A Little Beacon Blog’s Research Of The Key Food Story
This article here at A Little Beacon Blog aims to give space to the voices of both Emad and Alvin, to be heard to express how they were feeling in their own words in the 2 different times Alvin came into the store - the first time, and then the second time where he defied the ban he earned for allegedly cursing at Emad so loudly and consistently, and was not stopped by police the first time as Emad had requested. Their testimonies during Alvin’s lawsuit show what happened in a way that cannot be told from the final 20 seconds of a silent surveillance video clip.
Quotes from their testimonies, as well as from manager Mo Dabashi who was there that day and in the newspaper photo, and co-owner JB Said who was not there that day, have been used to tell more of this story that is being discussed in the Beacon community. More details have been added, including the restraining order Key Food filed and was granted against Alvin, as well as how the police were allegedly “divided” about how they responded during the first time Key Food called the police about Alvin, asking for the help of the police for him to not return to the store.
A spotlight is placed on Alvin’s testimony during his lawsuit that the police possibly protected Alvin from being arrested after JB pressed charges against Alvin on behalf of Key Food, as reads in Alvin’s testimony below. ALBB reached out to the detectives mentioned, but neither they nor the City Administrator responded.
Several details are cross referenced across depositions, police reports, and interviews. This article has been broken up into chapters so that you can take your time with it.
During Interviews With Key Food
Hours after the newspaper article published, I went to Key Food to speak with Mo and JB directly. We stepped outside to the parking lot so that I could listen to the first bits of what happened two years ago, and what was happening right now. Because of the newspaper article and the customer circulating the 20 second video of the most heated moments and his allegations of homophobia, some members of the Beacon community began calling and emailing the store, threatening and speaking their angry minds.
As I sat on the railing of the shopping carts, a customer pulled in, a white older man, and sneered at JB and Mo as he walked in to store. Or was he squinting at the sun? But the sun was behind him. Hours later, as I returned to the store to shop for my weekend snack-supply, an older white woman praised my fashion while I was in the back of the store near the chips. Speaking in smiles, we happily discussed where she too could buy it. Later, we ended up in the checkout line together. JB and his brother-in-law Max were behind us, speaking in Arabic. The large and extended family who owns this Key Food Beacon franchise is from Yemen. That’s in the Middle East.
From the checkout line, my new friend turned around to look at JB and Max as they conversed in Arabic. She made a sneering face as she leaned in toward me to tell me something quietly. Before hearing what she had to say, I promptly turned around to step out of line to interrupt JB and Max to ask them in English where to find the chocolate covered cookie sticks (Arabic is not currently in my Babble app, as it has so many dialects, but I am working on my Spanish and do speak in Spanish to the Car Wash Guy across the street when asking for the Super Wash).
Max and JB jumped on my request right away to find the chocolate covered cookie sticks. Max looked on the bakery table by the bread, and JB looked in the snacks by the toilet paper. By the time I got back to the checkout line, the woman was leaving, and we happily waved goodbye to each other with smiles
2 Different Altercation Events This Article Covers
There are 2 different encounters with the customer and the Beacon Police. Then, there are events involved with each party filing Police Reports against each other, one of which seemed to have gotten tossed out. The Highlands Current reported that Key Food did not file charges against the customer. But what the newspaper did not report was that the Key Food Beacon franchise co-owner JB tried to press charges against Alvin on behalf of Emad, but his filing seems to have been tossed out. Additionally, days after the incident, JB filed and was awarded a restraining order against the customer on behalf of the store. The customer must now walk on the opposite side of the sidewalk.
The customer and plaintiff, Alvin Medina, who cursed at and threatened an employee, Emad Dabashi, at Key Food, causing him to be scared and call the police to have the customer banned from the store.
Threats Made To Key Food
The newspaper article and the social media posts of the customer triggered a swell of discourse and community chatter about Key Food Beacon. The public became the jury in a case they knew very little about, deliberating amongst themselves. While many members of the community came to Key Food’s defense in social media comments and out on the street, some people called and emailed the local owners of Key Food with threats. Those threats extended to personal comments made to the children, spouses and siblings of the Key Food Beacon family. Most women in the Dabashi and Said families wear the hijab (head scarf), and are easily identifiable. Read what JB expressed about that here.
PREFACE:
The Alleged Anti-Arab Racial Insults
While the alleged racial insults are not the reason for feelings of fear that Alvin created in Emad and Mo (they said they responded more when they said Alvin would punch them in the face), everybody knows that some people in the Beacon community have expressed anti-Arab Muslim sentiments aimed at the Yemeni families who own the Beacon franchise of Key Food. One could argue that anti-Arab insults have become normalized in this country and around the world, and go unchecked.
In the police Incident No. BL-001734-20, Case No. CR-00238-20, filed by JB with Detective James Sirrine of the Beacon Police, JB described that when the customer “was turned away from the deli he became verbally abusive towards his staff, and began calling them profanities and terrorists.”
In the depositions of the court documents, both Emad and Mo stated that the customer did not call them “terrorists” when asked directly by Alvin’s attorney.
However, when I interviewed Mo for this article, Mo without question told me that Alvin used racial insults. The reason why both Emad and Mo answered the way that they did in the lawsuit depositions is explored later in this article.
Alvin Medina’s racial insult to the employees of Key Food posted on March 28, 2022, calling them “dirty,” which is a racial insult towards Arabs, who observe hygiene into their prayers, which they practice 5 times a day and wash before each prayer.
Upon the signing of the Stipulation of Discontinuance With Prejudice on March 15, 2022, which ended the lawsuit two years after the incident, and after agreeing to a payment of $95,000, the customer began expressing his discontent in social media, starting a fresh batch of verbal abuse, and used an anti-Arab racial insult on March 28, 2022, calling the employees of Key Food “dirty.” He deleted it in April after the check was mailed to his attorney. As of the taking of this screenshot, the customer’s Facebook was public, and posts could be viewed.
A screenshot of his insult was preserved by A Little Beacon Blog and published here. Several other members of the Beacon community have also preserved screenshots of the customer’s recent posts on Facebook and Instagram after the lawsuit ended.
Being called “dirty” as an Arab Muslim is one of the lowest Arab insults. Arab Muslims wash themselves before each prayer. Hygiene is extremely important to them, and is incorporated in guidance for their Friday prayers, the holiest day of the week for Muslims (like Sunday to Christians, or Saturday to Jews). Many Muslims pray 5 times per day. Key Food uses a room in the back of the store as a prayer room, as described in Mo and Emad’s depositions in the court documents.
CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR OVERVIEW:
A History Of Prior Insults Allegedly Made By Alvin
Key Food has a loyal following of customers and happy shopping experience. As with anywhere, a handful of customers feel entitled to take out their frustrations on employees. Most businesses on Main Street can attest to this as they deal with the public.
During a time prior to this incident, JB recalled a different time the Alvin was upset in the checkout line, and used the profanity: “F***ing A-rabs,” (pronounced with a sharp A). Said JB to A Little Beacon Blog in an interview: “He scared our cashier so badly. We sent her home that day to recover.”
According to lawsuit testimonies from Mo, Emad and JB, the police have had to be called over the years for unruly customers. As discovered in those testimonies, the the approach with an aggressive customer is to be patient, try to understand the customer’s level of understanding, and to call for help of other managers to help diffuse a situation.
While Alvin’s profanity didn’t offend them, Mo and Emad said in the depositions that it scared them. Calling the police is part of their policy when a situation gets too scary, said Mo and Emad in their testimonies to Alvin’s attorney. Mo told ALBB during an interview: “We need the help of the police. We rely on them.”
What follows is a story of an entitled customer, a police response, newspaper coverage with deaf ears, and the City of Beacon’s response that was dimly lit with gaslight.
A Tale Of 2 Salads:
A Story Of Entitlement
CHAPTER 1: The Deli Counter
Frequent shoppers of Key Food know that Emad Debashi is a tall, quiet person who usually wears glasses, as his other brothers do. One of his brothers looks very much like him, but they aren’t twins. Emad often bends down to give people his attention, and speaks from a low place, almost matching the speed of a slow rolling river. He has worked at Beacon’s Key Food for 10 years, and is a member of the family who owns the local franchise, Key Food Beacon.
On March 2, 2022, a customer named Alvin Medina came in with his mother to grocery shop. According to the customer, he went to check out with his mother, but had a craving for shrimp salad, so went to the deli counter. In the deposition, Alvin answered the Key Food’s attorney’s question about what salad he was craving: “Basically usually I would get, like, the shrimp salad mixed with some of the other salad that was there, I think it was like crab or something.”
Alvin’s attorney questioned Emad about the salad, who recalled: “He ordered two different salads to be filled up into one container, two different prices. I told him that we don't put two different salads with different prices. If it was the same price I would do it with no problem, but since there are two different prices I told him I can't do it.”
Alvin felt a way: “I asked if I could get the salad, and when I asked it, he just gave me like a rude face, he just looked upset. I don't know if it was his day or what was going on. But he was like, we don't do that here. And he just turned his face like he was pissed off or something he didn't like, yeah.”
Key Food’s deli opened in August 2019, along with a newly paved and painted parking lot.
According to Emad in his testimony: “He [Alvin] insisted. He said that he's gotten it there multiple times and that he's been there at the store for 4 years and shopping there for 4 years.”
Alvin later said in the deposition that he got the salad maybe two times. The deli opened in August 2019, and this salad incident happened in March 2020. A Little Beacon Blog wrote about the deli opening because the investment was such a large undertaking with construction limiting the flow of shopping for a while.
Emad told Alvin’s attorney: “I always advise if there's two different prices not to put it in the same container and I didn't want to overcharge him and I didn't want to under charge the store so I advised to give him two different containers and I'll put it in two different containers, two different prices. He still refused it and wanted it in the same container.”
Next, Alvin told the attorney that Alvin said: “I said okay fuck you. And I went back in line and waited with my mother.”
Emad recalled: “After I refused he flicked his middle finger towards me, and then kept walking, and then started cursing using fowl language so I told him since you're using fowl language I need you to step out of the store. I don't want you coming into the store anymore, and that was the first interaction.”
Alvin admitted to not knowing the employees at the Key Food Beacon store, despite his stated long shopping history. “I never paid much attention to the employees there, besides the one with the long hair.”
CHAPTER 2:
The Checkout Line
Emad described how Emad came out from the deli counter to the checkout line to tell Alvin to leave.
Alvin described to Key Food’s attorney: “Waiting then basically he had said something, I had said something. Because he was waiting behind me. I was like, there's no reason for you to wait behind me. I don't know why you're waiting behind me, this that and the third. And then that was when me and him started going and exchanging words at the time.” According to Emad, he was telling Alvin to not come back to the store, based on the cursing.
Emad recalled the conversation to Alvin’s attorney, and recited the words he could remember: “The first thing [Alvin said] is, like, fuck you, and then I was, like, all right. I won't help you. And then he went to the register. He's, like, fuck you, you don't know who you're talking to, you don't know who the fuck you're talking with, I'll fucking punch you in the face right now and just went on. Later on his mom got involved and was, like, you don't know the family you're fucking with, you don't know us.”
According to Emad’s testimony, he walked out of the deli toward the cash registers at the front of the store where the door to exit is, to tell Alvin to leave. While Alvin was cursing, Alvin’s voice got louder, “to the top of his [Alvin’s] lungs,” said Emad, while Emad was telling Alvin to leave the store. Alvin proceeded to checkout with his mother at the cash register.
In Alvin’s testimony, he accused Emad of calling him a “faggot.” Alvin’s attorney asked Emad about it:
Alvin's Attorney: “Did you call Mr. Medina a fag or a faggot?”
Emad: “No.”
Alvin''s Attorney: “Is there anything about the way he was conducting himself or speaking that led you to believe that might be gay?”
Emad: “No. I didn't even know that.”
Emad wanted to call the police. He stated in the testimony: “When he was threatening me saying that he was going to punch me that's why I had to call the cops in order to have the cops deal with it... I was feeling threatened in the case of they're saying you don't know who our family is, that he's going to punch me or whatever so that's why I called the cops to get the cops involved and to have him be banned from the store.”
During his testimony, Mo Dabashi told the attorney why sometimes they have needed to call the police for an unruly customer in the past: “There are, you know, events like that, you know, where you would have to, you call the police because this guy is crazy or he's on drugs and not listening or --- you know, and you don't know what to do with them so you would have to call police.”
In a video of the cash register, Alvin can be seen standing at the register. He claps his hands, and turns to say words to Emad. “I'm not 100% sure of what he to the T,” Emad testified, “but it was cursing at the time I asked him to leave the store and he's not to come into the store.”
In Emad’s testimony, Alvin’s attorney confirmed that Alvin was gesturing and speaking in the surveillance video. Emad walked away toward the front office with the wood paneling at the front of the store, and told their accountant who was in the office, Barbara Malouf, to call the police, which she did.
According to Emad’s testimony, Alvin was muttering to himself saying “Oh, I'll punch this dude. I been here for four years.” And then Alvin’s mother allegedly got involved. As Alvin and his mother were leaving the store, Emad recalled the interaction: “He's saying things like you don't know who you're fucking with, you don't know our family, and she said the same type thing, don't fuck with us. She forgets her milk and then she comes back for it. As they were walking out the police car arrived.”
CHAPTER 3:
The Beacon Police Let The Customer Walk By In Parking Lot
Alvin remembered leaving after the groceries were bagged up, testifying: “After that, we left the store. We did see cop cars coming up as soon as we were leaving, but we just kept walking like nothing happened. She had her shopping cart. I was there with her and we walked and went home.” According to Alvin as clarified by Key Food’s attorney, the police did not follow him, or ask him to stay so that they could speak to him, or contact him later.
The Key Food surveillance cameras have video of two police cars pulling up as Alvin and his mother walked by them. This is established verbally in the depositions by Alvin’s attorney. A Little Beacon Blog has also verified these videos by watching them during an interview with Mo.
In an initial Police Report about both incidents (the second incident described later on), the officer writing the report, Trevor Wood (008) stated: "HQ advised units that the male inside the store was removed from the store earlier in the day and told not to return by the store owners. This agency was contacted about the previous incident and the male fled from the area prior to officers arrival." The report numbers for this report are BL-001734-20 CR-00232-20.
But according to video and his own testimony, he did not flee before officers arrived.
ALBB Editor’s Note: When this blogger wrote in her Letter to the Editor of the Highlands Current, objecting to the short, mike-drop style of their article describing this highly consequential situation which ignited a bush fire in the Beacon community toward Key Food, the editor, Chip Rowe, disputed what this blogger said about the police letting the customer “walk right by.” Chip said: “According to the police report, Medina had left by the time Beacon officers arrived; they didn’t “let him walk right by.”
As far as this blogger knows, there is no police report of this first arrival of the Beacon police, but there is a second one: BL-001734-20 CR-00232-20 which is perhaps Chip is referring to. ALBB asked Chip and reporter Jeff Simms which Police Report(s) they reported from, but they did not respond. Surveillance camera footage and Alvin and Emad’s testimony say that Alvin walked by the first police car to arrive. According to Emad, that officer told Emad there was nothing he could do, and that Emad would need to go to the police station to file a report.
In Alvin’s Police Report CR-00232-20 (also has a notation of CR-442-20 hand-written at the top) dated March 4th, 2020, he stated: “I then proceeded to leave the business with my mother and observe the Beacon Police arrive, but I was never stopped or approached by them.”
At Alvin’s attorney’s request, Emad describes the video of the police cars arriving: “This is when they were walking out. He left. His mom was still in the store and as she's walking out you'll see the police officer's car.” Emad comes out of the store, says hello to a taxi driver who is regularly there to pick up customers. Alvin’s attorney walks Emad through the video of the police:
Alvin’s Attorney: “Can you see if that's my client and pretty much right in front of the his mother police car? Are you able to tell that's them?”
Emad: “Yes.”
Alvin’s Attorney: “I'm going to zoom the video. This car just seems to roll by though and then you follow?”
Emad: “Yes.”
Alvin’s Attorney: “My client and his mother are walking away still?”
Emad: “Yes.”
Alvin’s Attorney: “I see it looks like a shadow, your shadow underneath that delivery truck and you're talking to the cop, I presume, at that point?”
Emad: “Yes.”
Captured in the deposition, Emad told the police officer what he needed: “I was telling him about the interaction with the customer, that he was cursing and threatening. I told him that I just wanted to ban him from the store so that he doesn't come back to the store. He said I can't do nothing about it. I would have to go to the police station and file a report.”
According to all involved, there was no followup by police after that. No one spoke to the customer to let him know that his behavior lost him privileges to return to the store. So far, no police report from this first call of the police has materialized in FOIL requests by A Little Beacon Blog, and cannot be found in court documents. A FOIL request did produce a Police Report of both incidents combined (BL-001734-20 CR-00232-20).
The customer’s attorney asked Emad about previous experiences with working with police to ban someone from the store. Emad answered: “The cops will come and take the person's information and they do the report but, I haven't asked a police officer or had to follow up with it regarding a ban.” Emad continued that usually Mo or JB follow up by talking with police officers.
The customer’s attorney followed up with more questions about the process of the police’s involvement with banning an unruly customer:
Alvin’s Attorney: “When he called [in the past] the police arrive on premises and they take some sort of report?”
Emad: “Yes.”
Alvin'’s Attorney: “And the information that's in the report you believe is what the name of whomever the person being banned might be?”
Emad: “Yes.”
Alvin’s Attorney: “Of a description of them?”
Emad: “Yes.”
Alvin’s Attorney: “Anything else?”
Emad: “That's it.”
The attorney asked if there was a list or bulletin board, and Emad answered that there was not. “They already know. You specifically tell the person you're not allowed to come into the store and usually that's where it ends unless they come again and that's when you contact the police station. It depends on how the situation was. If they called the police and filed a report right there and then with the officer and they're banned from the store and they come again you call the cops and they'll come and deal with it.”
The reason this is important is because the customer came back to the store 2 hours later after taking prescription medication and having at least one beer. It is during the second shopping event that the physical incident happened.
In terms of how employees know who is banned, Emad answered that the managers, Mo and JB know the circumstances behind each customer, and inform each other if there is a situation, which is rare. In this situation, when the attorney asked if Emad told Mo or JB about the customer he banned, Emad replied: “I don't think I did because I went back to work. I had a busy schedule that day so I went right back to work and forgot all about it, forgot about the situation.”
A Little Beacon Blog called and emailed Detective Sirrine for comment about how the police handle unruly customers at this store and other stores, but he did not respond.
Alvin’s attorney pursued Emad to ask: “Were you angry about what happened with yourself and Mr. Medina?”
Emad answered: “Not necessarily because I could say we do have customers but usually when you tell them you're -- The only thing is just going to the cop, calling the police officers thinking that they'll do something that's just the thing that -- you know -- it lets you down thinking that the cops will help you out or something like that. But other than that it really didn't bother me since he already left the store.”
CHAPTER 4:
The Dairy Isle
A couple of hours after the customer got back home, he said in his deposition that he realized he needed milk. His mother bought milk, as was discovered in the sequence of events earlier, but he needed his own milk. He told the attorney: “I noticed I didn't have milk and I probably wanted to get something else for the house. I went to the same supermarket because I figured it's already been a while later he probably wasn't there. And on top of that, it was a little dispute, it wasn't nothing crazy.”
The customer walked into the store. Emad was standing at the front of the store, at the end of the isles, in front of the checkout lines. Frequent shoppers of Key Food know that sometimes Emad or other store managers stand in that position to help shoppers flow through the checkout lines seamlessly. Usually this front section has people standing in line, or delivery carts are being rolled through to stock inventory. Upon entering the store, Alvin turned left through this area and walked past Emad, then turned up an isle to head to the dairy section, where the milk is in the back left corner of the store.
As a frequent shopper of Key Food, the easiest and most direct way of getting to the milk is by walking into the store and staying straight. Walking up through the produce section, turning left at the meat section, and then turning left for the last isle - the dairy isle. But that is not the direction the customer went.
Emad was standing in the front of the store by the registers when he saw Alvin enter. Alvin walked by Emad, according to both of their depositions. According to Emad, Alvin’s hand was in his left pocket, and remained there the entire time he was in the store, which made Emad nervous, thinking he had a weapon.
The customer's attorney asked Emad how that made him feel. Emad said: "I was confused because I had told him not to come back to the store but he was coming back. I told him as he was walking 'you're not allowed to come into the store' and he just proceeded to walk."
The attorney asked Emad how far away he was from Alvin. Emad answered: “I'm not sure if as he was coming I told him or as he passed me I told him but I did I did tell him you're not allowed to come into the store and he just proceeded to keep walking so I followed him. I let him know -- you know -- you're not allowed to come into the store and as we were walking towards the dairy I told Barbara to call the cops again.”
When Alvin described it to Key Food’s attorney, Alvin said: “At that time we weren't even flying with F bombs or nothing like that. He just came out and was like I don't want you here. I was like, I just came here for a half a gallon of milk.”
INFLUENCE OF DRUGS OR ALCOHOL
When asked by the attorney if he thought Alvin was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, Emad responded: “He did seem off. I don't know what he was on but he was on something...Just his face, his expression, everything. He just seemed off." The attorney asked Emad if he had ever seen Alvin before this day. Emad answered: "I seen him at the first interaction and in the first interaction he was loud and talkative. The second time the guy was calm. He didn't say much. His eyes were close to shut. Even his body language was just, it wasn't okay. He seemed to be on something.”
Alvin’s attorney asked Emad if he was trained in identifying people who were under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Emad answered that he was not trained, but had seen it many times. According to the Police Report: "Officers attempted to interview ___ on what occurred but had a difficult time understanding ___ due to his speech and appearing to be under the influence of alcohol."
In his deposition, Alvin told the attorney that he had consumed at least 1 beer (Heineken) before returning to the store, and had “probably” taken his prescription medication for depression (Wellbutrin), and prescription medication for blood pressure, (Amlodipine). He could not recall if he had also had a beer before the first time he grocery shopped with his mother hours prior.
When asked by Emad’s attorney if he had taken any other prescription medications that afternoon, Alvin responded: "Well, definitely I didn't take Ambient because I would have been asleep, not at the store and my Xanax."
INTO THE DAIRY ISLE
Further into questioning, the customer’s attorney asked Emad if he had to stop following the customer at any point. Emad answered that the did, in order to tell Barbara to call the police. Barbara was in the front office where she usually is. Mo was also in the office and heard what was going on. According to the deposition, Mo asked Emad what was up, and Emad told him that the customer was back in the store.
Emad picked back up to find the customer in the dairy isle, knowing the police were on their way, but kept a distance. He feared there was a weapon in Alvin’s pocket, stating: “His hand was in his pocket so I didn't know if he had anything in his pocket. So the whole time that hand was always in his pocket, his left hand was in his pocket.”
Emad told the attorney that he continued following the customer to make sure he did not damage anything, and to continue telling him he was not allowed in the store. According to a police report CR-00238-20 filed by JB the next day, after JB was told by Emad and Mo about what happened, the customer allegedly knocked down a display on his way to or through the dairy section.
However, the detective allegedly disregarded that police report days later, saying he couldn’t see the damage in the video, as you’ll read further on in this article. However, in the initial Police Report BL-001734-20 CR-00232-20 by the officer: "Officers did observe multiple grocery items damaged and on the floor of Keyfoods aisle.
In Emad’s deposition, Alvin’s attorney asked him if Alvin had knocked down any displays or picked up any other items. Emad answered that Alvin had not. However, in the video, Emad was holding bags of snacks that Mo says Emad did pick up from Alvin, or that Alvin had dropped to the ground. Emad can be seen dropping the snacks before he approaches Alvin in the final seconds of the video.
As Emad and Alvin were headed down the dairy isle, out of view of the video footage, Mo walked into the dairy isle to try to talk to the customer.
Another employee was also in the deli isle: Willy Cole. Frequent shoppers of Key Food know that Willy often worked in the deli isle, stocking the shelves, arranging items, and checking for expiration dates. At any given moment on any given day Willy could often be found in the deli isle.
However, the customer saw that differently. Alvin told his attorney in his deposition: “So I proceeded down the milk aisle to go grab my milk. And I grabbed the milk. I was going to pay for it, all you know, I have him behind me, the one with the long hair [aka Mo] on the right-hand side of me trying to grab the milk out of my hand and the other guy that was hiding behind the potato chips [aka Willy].”
FEELINGS OF THREATS MADE BY THE CUSTOMER
In his deposition, Mo recalled those early seconds in the dairy isle, where he walked from the front office to the dairy isle: “Emad came and told me that he [Alvin] was back and we went about and we were going to call the police. So we told Barbara to call the police and then I wanted to talk to him [Alvin] to try to see if --- you know, if he would talk to me instead of my brother and if he would just leave with --- in peace. And he would not listen to me, he was just trying to walk through me, and, you know, [saying things] like you can't talk to me, you can't tell me what to do, I'll do whatever I want to do.”
Emad recalled the seconds as well in his deposition. All depositions were taken individually, with no one hearing each other. Emad said: "He [Alvin] just kept on pushing his way through." The attorney asked Emad to clarify the pushing: "Not pushing him [Mo] to the side but kept on going forward even though Mo was standing in front of him."
According to his deposition, Mo tried appealing to Alvin again: “I told him that, like, we don't want your service, can you just --- can we talk. He would not --- he would not want to talk to me. I said, listen, you know, you had an argument with my brother, we do not want your service here. You know, you said what you said, and we don't appreciate it. We are calling the police right now, and we need you to get out. And he would not, he was just walking through me.”
The customer’s attorney asked Mo about Willy, who was in the dairy isle. Mo responded: “Willy was working, he was nothing to do with it. He's clearly working right there.”
Once everyone got into view of the security camera, the final action of this whole day was captured in 20 seconds. Emad testified that he did not hear Alvin talking, but Mo testified that he did. The Highlands Current in his response to this blogger’s Letter to the Editor called that testimony “conflicting.” The newspaper editor said to this blogger: “The Dabashi brothers offered conflicting statements in their depositions as to whether Medina said anything to them when he returned to the store."
The Highlands Current editor may have missed this statement in Emad’s testimony, on page 83 of just Emad’s testimony (page 364 of the court documents that the newspaper has): Emad recalled: “Mostly the encounter at that time talking with each other was Mo and Mr. Medina.”
Alvin can be seen talking in the video. He is saying something to them, even if Emad could not hear it, but Mo did. Alvin can be seen talking in the video.
In term of safety, Alvin’s attorney asked Emad: “Did you believe that he might have had some sort of weapon?” Emad answered: “Yes. I'm not 100% sure if he had something in his pocket, something dangerous, I wasn't sure.”
THE SLAMMING OF THE MILK
Alvin the customer was sharing the video of his take down two years after it happened, and within the same month as signing the settlement for his $95,000 payout. This photo shows Alvin winding up to slam the milk to the floor, where it exploded
When Mo was trying to appeal to Alvin to leave the store, Mo reached in to take the milk from Alvin. In his deposition, Alvin recalled: “So basically, as I'm trying to walk to the cash register just to go pay for my milk -- that's all I wanted to do was pay for my milk -- is when the one with the long hair [aka Mo] grabs my hand to get the milk out of my hand. That's when I tossed the milk to the side, didn't toss it at anyone, just tossed it to the side.”
In the video, Alvin can be seen snapping the milk across his chest in a wind-up, raising it above his head, and then slamming it to the ground, where it exploded. Mo can be seen backing away, while Willy is taking a drink of something he opened from the dairy isle. After Alivin threw the milk to the floor with a lot of force, the milk exploded. This is when Emad grabbed Alvin from behind and put Alvin to the ground.
THE TAKEDOWN
Alvin’s attorney asked Emad what he hoped to accomplish by throwing Alvin to the floor: “Not getting attacked with anything coming out of his pocket,” Emad responded. “My brother getting hurt or anything like that.”
Said Mo of that moment: “We didn't know what he was going to do, so with my brother trying to, you know, protect me or he thought he was going to take out something or anything like that, so he took him down.”
Emad walked away from the scene, and the 20 second video ends. What is not shown, but is described in Emad’s deposition, is Emad leaving the frame to get the police. Just before police arrived, Emad went back check on Alvin. Emad recalled: “He had gotten up. He stumbled a couple of times, dropped the Rice Crispy's and then I assisted him to sit onto the dairy cooler and told him to stay there.” The police arrived 2 minutes later, Emad said. The Rice Crispy’s were a snack that Alvin picked up.
Alvin’s attorney proceeded to again try to paint a picture of 3 against 1 in this situation, with Willy as the third. For those just seeing the 20 second video, and for those seeing the single photo in the Highlands Current, the public wrote their own story of Willy’s involvement.
Alvin’s Attorney: “So in the video of the actual incident it's you, your brother, and Willy all standing around or near Mr. Medina, three against one, right?”
Emad: “Willy wasn't in the picture to begin with. Willy was way out of the picture. He wasn't standing around him. He wasn't getting involved. He wasn't doing anything.”
Alvin’s Attorney: “But he was present?”
Emad: “Present doesn't mean you're involved.”
After Alvin was on the ground, Willy seemed to say something to Alvin and walk away.
FEELINGS AFTER IT ALL
Alvin's attorney then posed a different kind of question to Emad: "Do you think that he got what he deserved for what he did to you and your brother?"
Emad answered: "Not for what he did but for what to expect. I didn't know what to expect especially during the first interaction being threatened and saying about his family, we don't know who his family is and stuff like that so I didn't know what to expect and plus his hand was in his pocket so I wasn't 100% sure so I needed to do something.”
THE GUILTY PLEA
While the Highlands Current article said that Emad “conceded” to his plea, there is more to Emad’s feelings on his plea. The attorney asked Emad if he plead voluntarily. Emad answered: “Yes. With the advice of my counsel. I mean if it was for me I wouldn't just volunteer for that. I would have just kept on going but with my assisting counsel at the time that was advised.”
The attorney pressed on, asking Emad why he didn’t want to plead guilty. Emad answered: “Because I felt like it was self-defense defending me and my brother and the video just shows me hitting him on the floor and not knowing the background of the whole situation and threatening.”
Alvin’s attorney continued with his questioning of Emad’s plea, asking him if the judge asked him “a bunch of other questions” similar to this deposition setting. Emad answered that the judge did not ask bunches of questions, and just wanted to hear the story. So Emad told him the story. The guilty plea meant that Emad gave up his right to a trial by jury, and that Emad’s attorney could have cross-examined Alvin, to ask Alvin bunches of questions, but did not because of the guilty plea.
Alvin’s attorney continued on with the implications of the guilty plea questioning:
Alvin's Attorney: "Did he ask you if you were pleading guilty to this misdemeanor assault because you were, indeed, guilty of doing that?"
Emad: "Saying that I applied excessive force and that's the reason why I was guilty."
Alvin's Attorney: "And you agreed to that?"
Emad: "I agreed with it to resolve the case."
Alvin's Attorney: “But did you mean it?”
Emad: "Yes."
Alvin's Attorney: "But you do understand that you could have went forward with the case and had that trial and given the testimony and if you chose to present the self-defense or justification defense to everything that's shown in the video, right, you know you could have done that?"
Emad: "Yes. But I just seen the video and everyone doesn't see it that way." This was the only quote the Highlands Current included in the conclusion of their article. The newspaper then used a quote from Junior Dabashi that Junior changed his mind on and asked them not to include, but according to Junior, the editor Chip Rowe said that the editor insisted on using it.
CHAPTER 5:
The Police Were Allegedly Divided About Their Own Response
Mo was hesitant to go on the record about the police’s response as to how the first incident with Alvin’s alleged verbal abuse was handled, when the Beacon police drove up, Alvin walked by, Emad pointed to him, and the officer did not speak to Alvin.
Even though he was afraid of further abandonment by the police, Mo decided to go on the record with A Little Beacon Blog about this part of the story: “The police were divided over how the first officer handled it,” Mo told ALBB. “The two detectives involved in the case were Brian Lawrence and James Sirrine. We were so cooperative with Brian and showed him all clips needed and he was on our side in the case. Then he turned against us, where James was very helpful and supporting us the whole time. James Sirrine was the one that told us that the police department was divided in the case. Some were saying that the police officer who showed up the first time should have did something and some didn’t care that they thought it was a wrong reaction by my brother and doesn’t want to hear anything else.”
At that time, the Police Chief was Kevin Junjulas. He and Captain Fredericks retired months later in June after the racial reawakening started and organizers marched down Main Street in Beacon all summer. Police Chief Sands Frost stepped in to be the Acting Chief, and after a lengthy process with much considerations given, Chief Frost was selected by Beacon’s Police Chief Search Committee. This was also before the time that Beacon hired a Mental Health Professional, Lashaveous Dicker, to go out on calls with Beacon Police. Chief Frost and longtime Lieutenant Tom Figlia have been working to improve relations with the community ever since.
CHAPTER 6:
Police Take Report From Key Food’s Co-Owner JB Said To Press Charges; It Is Thrown Out; Instead, Emad Is Arrested
The day after the incident, the Key Food Beacon franchise co-owner JB Said went down to the police station to file a Police Report against Alvin Medina, which is filed as CR-00238-20, Blotter No. BL-001734-20. The report states that the detective taking the information about Alvin’s actions, Detective James Sirrine, “completed an arrest warrant for Criminal Tampering 3rd and filed it with the court.”
While JB was not at the store that day, Mo and Emad told him what happened. On their behalf, JB reported: “When [customer] was turned away from the deli he became verbally abusive towards his staff, and began calling them profanities and terrorists. Said states that [customer] then intentionally knocked over several displays of merchandise at the back of the store, causing a large mess inside the store. [Customer] made threats to harm [redacted] and his staff.”
In his deposition, JB told Alvin’s attorney: “He said that --- starting from the incident at the salads he started saying fuck you, mother fuckers, you fucking ‘A-rabs,’ such and such, and he started throwing the middle finger in his face, you know, like when you --- at the clerk in the deli. And Emad told me he's going to fuck you up, you don't know who the fuck we are, fuck you, mother fucking ‘A-rabs.’
JB continued in his testimony for the lawsuit: “He just kept on cursing and cursing over and over. It wasn't the staff cursing. And then I asked --- I made sure to ask Emad did you say anything back and he said I didn't curse back at him or nothing like that, I just told him I don't want his business and that was it, end of conversation. And I don't remember to the T because I wasn't there. I'm just going off what everybody is telling me, what Emad is telling me on that stuff.”
In order to clarify JB’s recollection in his deposition, Alvin’s attorney asked JB if he had watched the video before filing the police report. “The second I understood there was a situation I first thought where they fought was next to the milk, next to the milk is all the way in the back of the store. The video that you showed me is in the front already leaving the aisle, the milk section is all the way in the back. So to my understanding I thought the situation happened there, not in the front. You know, that's why I was thinking the displays or wherever the fight happened was in the back.”
Later, the Police Report that JB filed was withdrawn, or canceled, according to JB. Alvin’s attorney asked JB: “Did there come a time where you withdrew your complaint against Mr. Medina?” The attorney rephrased the question, and asked why Mo did not file the complaint.
JB answered: “Because I thought it was the right thing to do because the situation of what happened. I mean, it's my location, my store. I'm --- most of the managers there is me, I'm always there all the time, so I wanted to do something for the guy that caused us so much problems in the store.”
Alvin’s attorney asked JB if Emad said he felt disrespected. JB recalled: “Not that I know of. He never said the word disrespected, he just said --- he explained it to me as Mr. Medina wasn't--- if he was on some --- that he was drinking or on some kind of drug of some sort. That's what I understood, that he was telling me that the guy was not right at all…On the second encounter he [Emad] was telling me that, that he [Alvin] was definitely on something and it looked like he was coming back just for trouble.”
Alvin’s attorney returned to questioning about the Police Report and JB’s filing of charges. He asked: “Was he [the officer] upset with you when he returned to speak to you?”
JB: “Who, the police officer?”
Alvin’s Attorney: “Yes.”
JB: “No. Why would he be upset with me?”
Alvin’s Attorney: “I was just asking. Did he say anything along the lines of that would be interpreted or construed as questioning your veracity; do you understand what I mean?”
JB: “No, I don't understand. Veracity meaning what exactly?"
Alvin’s Attorney: “I will make it very plain for you. Did he tell you that he thought you were lying or making stuff up the second time he talked to you?"
JB: “The second time I think he talked to me he was explaining to me that he didn't see anything on the camera and I was explaining to him that I was going off what Emad and Moufaq and everybody was explaining to me about the situation and what happened."
Alvin’s Attorney: “And did you stand firm with what you shared with him the first time?"
JB: “Yeah, I explained to him the situation, but he was saying it wasn't credible because the camera system doesn't show that, doesn't show the situation."
Alvin’s Attorney: “So he told you he didn't believe you? Did he say it like that or did he say it the way you just said it ---"
JB: "Yeah, he said it was incredible."
Alvin’ Attorney: "Yeah, well, what did you think of it, what did you think about that?"
JB: “It is what it is. The proof is the proof, you need to see what's in front of you to actually, you know, consider truth."
Alvin’s Attorney: "Did you still believe you were telling the truth?"
JB: Yeah, "I believed I was explaining the situation like it was, but to my understanding, I wasn't a hundred percent accurate with the conversation because I wasn't at the scene, scene of the crime."
Alvin’s Attorney: "Did he tell you after that conversation, that one we're talking about right now, that he was pulling the warrant or withdrawing the criminal charges you wanted to press or something like that?"
JB: "Yes, he was telling me that because he said it wasn't credible enough, there wasn't enough proof to show everything that was going on that we said was going on."
Alvin’s Attorney: "How did that make you feel?"
JB: “I mean, it was okay. It is what it is. I mean, we've got to go with what we see, wheat's in front of us. What can be proven, put it like that. Whatever can be proven is what it should be."
In the Beacon Police Report dated 3/3/2020 22:19 by Wood, Trevor (008), identified as BL - 001734-20 CR-00232-20, police officers did see damaged property. The report stated: “Officers did observe multiple grocery items damaged and on the floor of Keyfoods aisle.” It is not clear why the Detective did not consider this observation made by officers in the earlier Police Report, when he allegedly told JB that damaged displays or groceries were not in the video footage, so did not seem to matter.
CHAPTER 7: A CLOSER LISTEN
Why Being Called “Terrorist” Wasn’t “Heard” In Testimony
After first learning about the incident and later lawsuit in the article in the Highlands Current, this blogger went to Key Food to get a better understanding of what happened. The newspaper article was short, the photo and video only showed the most graphic, heated moments of a much longer story. Both Mo and JB said that the customer had used racial insults that day.
Based on my interview the day after the newspaper article dropped, my first Letter to the Editor to the Highlands Current, I stated that the customer had used Islamaphobic insults. The newspaper’s editor, Chip Rowe, suggested I read the court documents before he published my letter. At my request, Chip emailed the court documents he and his reporter used.
In the court documents, when Mo and Emad were questioned separately by Alvin’s attorney about if Alvin called them “terrorists,” both Mo and Emad answered that he did not. In fact, the customer’s attorney asked Emad several times if Emad felt disrespected. Each time, Emad answered that he did not. Emad expanded: “Why would you feel disrespected if you get into an encounter like that. I didn't think I was disrespected.”
Puzzled, I returned to Key Food Beacon to ask Mo why both he and Emad denied that Alvin called them “terrorists”, if their memories remembered Alvin saying that. It was an uncomfortable question to ask Mo, but he responded quietly: “I don’t hear it anymore. In Oakland, CA, that was chaos.” Mo used to work in bodegas in Oakland before moving to Beacon, NY, as he described to Alvin’s attorney in his deposition. “I know who I am, and I know what they say to me is not true. I am an Imam at the mosque [Masjid Ar Rashid – Islamic Teaching Center] down the street. When I am outside, people yell to me: ‘Go home!’ But I am home.”
Mo continued: “If someone tells me they are going to punch me in the face, I will remember that. That tells me that I should duck; that something might happen to me right now.”
Despite stating that he had shopped at Key Food for several years, Alvin stated and implied several times that he did not know the management at Key Food, who is quite visible both behind and in front of the counter. He referred to them as “the one with the long hair” and other visual indicators. Alvin made it clear in his deposition: “I never paid much attention to the employees there, besides the one with the long hair.”
However, in his Police Report days after the incident to file charges against Emad, Alvin identified him as: “the male employee described as being Middle Eastern with a long beard about 30 years of age.” These were more precise details when Alvin was pursuing Emad’s arrested.
“At first, [Detective] Brian said ‘we are with you guys.’ But when he had us down to the station,” Mo recalled to ALBB, after the police invited Emad down to talk about more details, “he [Detective Brian Lawrence] was a different person.”
CHAPTER 8:
Alvin’s Recollection Of What Police Told Him About Emad
According to JB’s testimony, his Police Report to press charges against Alvin got withdrawn. After Alvin filed a Police Report of his own after he got out of the hospital, the police called Emad to come down to the station to answer a few more questions, JB told ALBB in an interview. When they arrived at the police station, Emad was arrested.
According to Alvin’s own testimony, the police had feelings about who was wrong, and seemed to be basing it on the 20 seconds of the video clip, without questioning others. ALBB has reached out to both detectives for their response to how they handled this, but neither have responded. They forwarded ALBB’s request to Beacon’s City Administrator Chris White, who also did not respond.
Alvin stated in his testimony: "I went to the police station to actually make a report, the police officer that was there -- I went there by myself at nighttime, which was hard enough to even walk over there, but that police officer told me, if I were to make a report, they would have to arrest me then go and get the guy."
At the time, JB’s Police Report was active, and the arrest warrant for Alvin was open.
"First thing the detective said before he started the report he was like, Alvin, I don't care what you went there for, what happened at that supermarket, from what we saw in this video, it wasn't fair what they did to you. When you went to the police station two days after, did you make a report? I didn't even get to report because he said if I filed a report, he would have to arrest me then he'll have to go and arrest the guy."
Alvin's Attorney: “So then, do you know how it came about that two days after that detectives contacted you?”
Alvin: “That's when the detectives just contacted me and then they asked me if I was able to make it to the station.”
Alvin's Attorney: “Did you fill out any paperwork with the police?”
Alvin: “Yes, after the detectives came and picked me up, yes, that's when we made the report.”
Alvin's Attorney: “If you didn't make a report that night, two days after you left the hospital, how did the police know what happened?”
Alvin: “I guess from when they went to the supermarket.”
Alvin's Attorney: “And do you know that they went to the supermarket?”
Alvin: “I'm guessing so.”
ALBB emailed both detectives to verify what Alvin said in his testimony. Leutenant Figlia responded with a reminder that as of 12/23/2021, all of ALBB’s questions for the Police Department need to go through City Administrator Chris White. The City Administrator then did not respond.
Chapter 9:
The Restraining Order
After the incident, JB pursued a restraining order against Alvin Medina. The restraining order was granted in Beacon City Court from Judge Timothy Pagones, who was City Court Judge back then. Alvin needs to walk on the opposite side of the street from Key Food when he passes that property.
The COVID-19 pandemic was declared days after this incident. Over the next two years, this lawsuit traveled through its process. Emad went through his court experience pleading guilty to the charge Alvin filed, and later on, all four people gave their depositions. The two parties settled in mediation, and agreed on March 15, 2022 to end the lawsuit for a payment of $95,000.
According to Alvin’s deposition, all of his medical bills had been paid already prior to the lawsuit settling by his Medicare Insurance 1199 Aetna, with the exception of the Beacon Ambulance Corps bill, which he was still submitting.
After the Stipulation of Discontinuance With Prejudice was signed on March 15, 2022, which stated that the lawsuit wa discontinued because a payment was on the way, Alvin began sharing the 20 second video in his video, accusing Key Food Beacon of being homophobic. Alvin riled up his friends, and didn’t seem to tell them in social media that he had already pursued a lawsuit and was awareded $95,000. Alvin let his friends tell him to sue Key Food Beacon.
Last month, Alvin also called Key Food Beacon “dirty,” which again, is an Arab racial insult, as described above. He continued to verbally assult and abuse Key Food Beacon. Which is what started this whole thing.
The end.
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