BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - A former professional golfer is suing Hudson County News after he says it accused him of shoplifting, leading to a humiliating experience on a plane.
Jeffrey Lewis filed his lawsuit March 7 in Massachusetts' Suffolk County Superior Court, also naming JetBlue Airways as a defendant. On June 13, he had boarded a plane in Boston when a JetBlue employee said loudly that he was being accused of shoplifting and had to leave the plane or be arrested.
Lewis had purchased two sweatshirts at Hudson County News in the airport and had been given their hangers so he could carry them in his suit bag, the suit says. However, Hudson County News thought he had taken the shirts and ordered him off the plane.
"They asked for the receipt, which he had discarded or never taken," the suit says. "He suggested they confer with the store clerk about the sweatshirts, which after some time, they must have done.
"Mr. Lewis was quietly escorted back onto the plane. Mortified, Mr. Lewis sat quietly, humiliated in front of all those people, some of whom knew who he was."
Lewis said he even gave out an autograph when he boarded the plane. He was travelling to his hometown, and he says the shoplifting allegations caused him "severe damage to his reputation for having committed a crime."
Lewis claims emotional distress and is suing for defamation and intentional and negligent inflictions of emotional distress.
John Sutherland of Brickley/Sears in Boston is representing Lewis.