TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Legal Newsline) — A Florida minister calls some masking policies "demonic" and is suing over the reception he received when showing his bare face at a store during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jimmy K. Allen filed a complaint Sept. 26 in Leon County Circuit Court against Community Coop Market LLC and Benjamen Goldberg, alleging negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
According to his complaint, Allen, who is disabled, was at Community Coop Market in Tallahassee on June 25, 2020. He alleges that during his visit, the manager Goldberg commented on his not wearing a face mask and when Allen explained that he was exempt due to his disability and religious beliefs, Goldberg stated "no one is exempt" and threatened to call the police if he did not leave the store.
Allen alleges that Goldberg "blatantly and publicly implied that his physical presence in the store was harmful to other people." He also alleges Goldberg never explained the requirement to wear a face mask and whether the mask was required to meet certain criteria.
He says the defendant's face mask requirement was "about control and submission" and not health or disease prevention.
"Defendants had no legal right or legal authority to compel Plaintiff to submit to or participate in demonic masking rituals, regardless of how pervasive said demonic masking rituals are promoted or accepted throughout the world!" the complaint says.
Allen is representing himself and seeks monetary relief of more than $50,000, interest, trial by jury and all other just relief.
Leon County Circuit Court case number 2023-CA-002327