Fifth Third Bank denies it wouldn’t cash 71-year-old’s casino check because she was Black
A Michigan bank accused of refusing to cash a 71-year-old woman’s check because she was Black has denied all allegations and asked for her lawsuit to be dismissed, according to court documents.
Lizzie Pugh, a retired Detriot public school employee, won a jackpot on a slot machine during a church visit to Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in April. When she later went to Fifth Third Bank in Livonia, Michigan, to deposit her winnings, three white employees said the check was fake and refused to hand it back to her, according to Ms Pugh.
She filed a federal lawsuit last week alleging racism from the bank staffers.
On Wednesday, Fifth Third Bank filed a 23-page response denying all wrongdoing and asked the U.S. District court to dismiss her lawsuit, according to the Detroit Free Press. The suit was filed under Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which prohibits race discrimination in public places.
"Fifth Third denies that any events occurred which would substantiate plaintiff’s claims against Fifth Third or entitle plaintiff to any damages or other relief," attorneys for the bank wrote in the filing, according to the newspaper.
A spokesman for the bank also denied all allegations in a statement to the Free Press.
“The banker was attempting to verify the check with the casino that issued it as part of its fraud prevention procedures in this case,” Ed Loyd said in the statement.
He added that the bank “confirmed records of a phone call from the branch to the casino on the afternoon in question,” according to the newspaper.
“From our review of the claims, we believe our employees’ actions were well intentioned and have been misinterpreted,” the statement continued. “That said, we regret Ms Pugh has come away feeling mistreated after her interactions at our branch. We never want someone to feel that way. Our employees’ actions were consistent with our process and the dual goals of serving our customers while also preventing potential frauds that can victimize both the bank and our customers.”
The lawyer for Ms Pugh called the denials “a bunch of bull***t,” the Free Press reported.
"Why do you tell someone there is a fraudulent check? If I walked in there, I highly doubt they’d tell me that it’s fraudulent,” Deborah Gordon told the newspaper.
She claimed the bank could not say it handled the incident properly because her client eventually got check back, went down the street to a Chase branch, and “they deposited it right away."
In an earlier interview, Ms Pugh told the Free Press about the April incident, saying she “couldn’t really believe they did that to me.
“I was devastated. I kept asking, ‘How do you know the check is not real?’ ... And they just insisted that it was fraudulent ... I was just terrified.”
She finally got back the check later that day and managed to deposit it at a nearby Chase bank.
“To think that maybe they would have police coming and running at me – it was humiliating and stressful,” Ms Pugh said. “For someone to just accuse you of stealing? I’m 71 years old. Why would I steal a check and try to cash it? I just didn’t think anybody would do that.”
The lawsuit states that Ms Pugh went to a casino with her church group on 9 April. After winning her jackpot, she chose to pay the taxes on her winnings at the casino, which issued a check and cash to Ms Pugh. The amount was more than $12,000, according to the newspaper.
Two days later, Ms Pugh drove to the Fifth Third Bank to open to deposit the check in a savings account she planned on opening. She was asked to step into an office, where an employee asked where she worked and to see her driver’s license. Ms Pugh handed over the check to the bank staffer.
“She left the room. She came back and she told me that the check was fraudulent, and she could not give it back to me,” Ms Pugh told the paper. “I’m like, ‘Why? It’s not fraudulent.’”
Another employee was called into the office, who also claimed that the check was fraudulent. She also refused to hand it back.
“I told them I wasn’t leaving. You need to call the police. Or better yet, I’ll call myself,” Ms Pugh said.
The two employees left and took the check into the office of a third staffer. Ms Pugh soon followed and was faced with the third employee making the same claim. She finally got the check back and it was cleared at another bank the next day.
Ms Pugh’s niece, Yolanda McGee, 50, pushed her aunt to take legal action.
“I told her, ‘This clearly was a violation of your civil rights. There are laws in place now, where you can fight. Let’s fight this,’” Ms McGee told the Free Press. “Fifth Third Bank needs to know that they humiliated you. What they did was wrong. And they need to answer for this.”
“I encouraged her. I said, no, no, no, no, no. We are not in 1950s Alabama. We’re not in the Jim Crow era. We are gonna fight. No one’s gonna shame you,” Ms McGee added.
