Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Store Sounds Like a Stephen King Movie

SEATTLE (CN) - A man says his girlfriend was forced to work the night shift at a convenience store in a "high crime area" after just two days on the job, and he was stabbed in the eye protecting her from a former employee who had threatened to kill her if she reported his shoplifting.

Paul Dews claims his girlfriend, Amanda Johnston, "was fearful of working alone because Roadrunner Deli Mart Chevron was being patronized by many shoplifters, criminals, and alcoholics."

In his complaint in King County Court, Dews says Johnson called him when her coworker failed to show up and her manager wouldn't call her back.

"The plaintiff and Ms. Johnston witnessed many acts of shoplifting and attempted shoplifting. Many patrons would curse or ignore Ms. Johnston when she asked them to pay for items," according to the complaint.

Dews says that when Johnson refused to sell alcohol to former employee after the 2 a.m. deadline, he grabbed the alcohol and threatened to kill her if she called the police.

Then he "stabbed the plaintiff in the face, imbedding the entire blade near the plaintiff's eye," and "attempted to stab the plaintiff several more times in his body with the knife handle and fist, not realizing that the entire blade was lodged in the plaintiff's face," according to the complaint.

The assailant, Rodrigo Hernandez, had recently been fired from the market and was released from jail that day, according to the complaint.

Dews adds: "Ms. Johnston worked her entire shift after seeing her boyfriend stabbed in the eye and seeing Hernandez flee without being arrested."

Dews says he needed reconstructive surgery. He says market owners Kenny So and Gary Ruffern should have known Hernandez was a violent felon. And he says the owners failed to protect employees and customers, failed to fix a lock on the alcohol cooler, knew that one of their employees was trading alcohol for drugs, and did not provide working security cameras.

"Just weeks after the plaintiff was stabbed in the eye, a female cashier at the Roadrunner Deli Mart Chevron was beat in the head with a baseball bat by a robber," the complaint states.

Chevron is also named as a defendant. Dews wants general and special damages for medical expenses, lost income and pain and suffering. He is represented by Lembhard G. Howell.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...