Greenfield Crab Du Jour manager fired, cited for throwing a drink in a customer's face

A manager at the Crab Du Jour restaurant in Greenfield who threw a drink in a customer's face in August has been fired a month after he was cited with disorderly conduct for the incident.

The customer, Mariah Luckette, wants the manager to face more charges and has hired an attorney. She said she is still dealing with eye damage and mental health concerns.

Jason Diong, the now-former manager at Crab Du Jour, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he threw the drink in reaction to being called an Asian racial slur.

Luckette — who tossed a chair at Diong after he threw the drink — says the incident stemmed from complaints she made about her food, and that she did not use any racial slurs.

Surveillance footage obtained by the Journal Sentinel from the Greenfield Police Department shows the Aug. 16 incident, but does not include any audio.

Diong did not tell police officers that Luckette called him a racial slur, according to the police report. At the time, he said he was frustrated because Luckette would not pay or leave.

Luckette said she'd complained her food wasn't up to par

Luckette said she took a friend to the restaurant, at 4638 S. 76th St., because she had been a fan of their food in the past. But, this time her food wasn't up to par.

"My food was nasty, the corn was hard, the potatoes was hard. I told Jason, look this is my friend's first time here, I done bragged about this place and y'all bring out these plates," Luckette said.

Luckette requested new food and said Diong started giving her attitude. Luckette said she then told Diong she didn't want him to handle the food because she thought he would spit in it. She also told him she wouldn't pay for the food.

The video shows Luckette gesturing toward Diong, while holding her phone in her hand. According to the police report, Luckette was on the phone with her boyfriend at the time.

Then, Diong picked up Luckette's drink and tossed it in her face.

The video then shows Luckette pick up a chair and throw it across the bar at Diong.

An officer wrote in the police report that Luckette's eyes were red and watering. Luckette said she was treated at a hospital for chemical burns in her eyes, because the drink had alcohol and lemon in it.

Luckette is also seeing a therapist, she said, for what she calls "a traumatic event."

Though Diong has since said that Luckette called him a racial slur, Greenfield officers did not record that he reported that at the time.

Officers also said Diong lied about his location during questioning, saying over the phone that he was no longer at the restaurant. They wanted to enter the restaurant to obtain the footage, but the doors were locked.

Officers then spotted Diong leaving the restaurant shortly after saying he was at home, according to the police report.

Diong was cited for disorderly conduct by Greenfield Police.

Diong told the Journal Sentinel he will pay the citation and is sorry for throwing a drink in Luckette's face, but he was reacting to being called a racial slur.

"She's blaming me for everything, I'm not even being defensive. She can say whatever she wants," he said.

Luckette returned to the restaurant with the Black Panthers

About a week after the incident, Luckette returned to Crab Du Jour to confront Diong, this time with support from members of the Original Black Panthers. She posted the video to Facebook.

In the video, Diong apologizes for his actions, but reiterates that Luckette made "racial remarks." Darryl Farmer, the leader of the Black Panthers in Milwaukee, asks Diong why she didn't receive a ticket if she made racial remarks. Diong doesn't answer.

Luckette and Farmer want the restaurant shut down and for Diong to be charged with assault and battery.

Crab Du Jour owners 'shocked and enraged' by the incident, are investigating

Crab Du Jour is a national brand, with most locations along the East Coast and in the southern U.S. The stores are not franchises, but individually owned and operated.

As of Sept. 16, a month after he threw the drink in Luckette's face, Diong was still serving customers at the Greenfield restaurant, but said he would be quitting in the coming days. "I don't know what I'm going to do, I'm going to take a couple months to figure it out," he said.

On Tuesday, five weeks since the incident, the ownership group for the Greenfield restaurant released a statement to the Journal Sentinel.

"We are both shocked and enraged by this incident. We have zero tolerance for this type of behavior and take this incident very seriously because the trust and safety of our customers is our highest priority," the statement reads.

"The employee in question has been terminated and an internal investigation and corporate policy review is currently underway to ensure this does not happen again. We will continue to cooperate with local law enforcement during this ongoing investigation."

For Luckette, she said it's "great" that Diong was terminated, but she wants Diong to face more charges and plans to file a lawsuit.

"I hope anyone who feels it's OK to assault women, would not work at any serving businesses," she said. "... He needs to be charged with assault and battery. A month later I'm still suffering externally from loss of vision and internally I am in therapy and I hope I can get over this depression. It's changed my life."

Contact Drake Bentley at (414) 391-5647 or DBentley1@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DrakeBentleyMJS.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Crab Du Jour Greenfield manager throws drink at customer, gets fired