April 3, 1999
Contra Costa Times

Fired Waiter Lays Blame On Malady
He claims Red Lobster violated the federal laws by dismissing him knowing he bad Tourette Syndrome
By David Ferris, Times Staff Writer

MARTINEZ -- It wasn't anger that made Chris Jones cuss out a fellow server one stressful Saturday night last year at a Pittsburg restaurant, he says. It was a rare mental disorder.

This week, the 22-year-old Concord man filed suit against the Red Lobster restaurant chain claiming it violated federal disability laws by firing him two days after the incident even though he had previously told them of his condition.

It is the second lawsuit in the country to allege that a person was fired from a job because of an outburst related to Tourette Syndrome -- a brain disorder that causes a range of impulsive behavior, according to Sue Levi-Pearl, a director of the National Tourette Association.

Tourette Syndrome is an inherited and incurable malady that produces repetitive blinking, sniffing, kicking, twitching and other uncontrollable behavior. The Northern California chapter of the national group includes about 1,500 sufferers, according to its president, Debbie Odam.

In an interview Friday, Jones said the incident that precipitated his firing was the result of a form of the disease that affects only 15 percent of sufferers -- coprolalia, where the impulsive act includes bursts of foul or inappropriate language.

"The minute I said it, I backed up and wondered what had happened," Jones said of the incident in November .

A spokesman for Darden Restaurants, the Florida-based parent company of Red Lobster, said he hadn't seen the lawsuit, filed in Contra Costa Superior Court, and declined to comment.

Jones started at a Red Lobster restaurant in Concord in 1996 as a host, and later moved to the branch in Pittsburg and was promoted to waiter.

On Nov. 21, Jones said he got in an argument with a waitress over who was assigned to an eight-person table. Feeling that the woman was "trying to yank my chain," he let loose with a few swear words.

The waitress told the general manager, who called Jones into his office for a talking-to and sent him home. Two days later, Jones claims, he was called in and fired.

The firing came months after the company tried to quell bad-mouthing and racial comments among its staff by making employees sign forms to that effect, according to Jones and his attorney, Harvey Sohnen.

Jones said the general manager told him he was fired because he violated that promise.

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