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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Firm Ignored Threats to Obama, Men Say

ATLANTA (CN) - The Secret Service interviewed a supervisor of an Atlanta company after he and his nephew threatened to assassinate President Obama, according to an employment lawsuit in Federal Court.

Matthew Smith and Derrick Steward, who worked as truck drivers for the defendant Georgia Sandwich Co., say they were fired after they reported their former supervisor's derogatory statements about black people.

They say John O'Neal, a white man, "bragged that he and his family were members of the Ku Klux Klan," and "talked openly about 'shooting niggers' and their plan to assassinate President Obama."

Smith says he called the Secret Service in December 2008, after "O'Neal and his nephew began bringing firearms to work" and made "repeated, open, and notorious racially motivated threats against the President. ...

"Secret Service agents interviewed Mr. O'Neal," according to the complaint.

The company took no action against O'Neal but laid off the plaintiffs, though it retained white drivers with less experience, seniority and qualifications, the men say.

Smith and Steward want to be reinstated or their lost wages with front pay, benefits and pension. They did not sue O'Neal; they sued the Georgia Sandwich Co. and its owners, Michael Gordon and Samuel Gordon.

The 23-page lawsuit is replete with other vile epithets and threats attributed to O'Neal.

The plaintiffs are represented by Steven E. Wolfe with Buckley & Klein.

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