‘Publicly Branded as Violent Criminals’: Black Women Suing Auto Shop Claiming Racist Attack By Manager Who Claimed They Beat Him with Stiletto Heel
Two Black women who were wrongly charged after a Texas auto shop manager accused them of assault are taking legal action and reversing the allegations, accusing him of attacking and discriminating against them because of their race and sexual orientation.
Dymond Canada and Donae Douglas were once charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after an employee at a Midas auto service center in Houston accused them of beating him with a stiletto heel and hitting him with their car.
The employee alleged that when the pair entered the shop on May 1, 2023, they requested to use a Groupon as payment for an oil change. When the staff member told them they would have to make an appointment, he told police that Canada took off her heel and struck him between 10 and 15 times before Douglas got in her car and rammed it into him.
A grand jury later rejected the case because there wasn’t enough evidence to pursue the charges.
In the Douglas and Canada’s lawsuit cited by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, they say only part of the employee’s version of events is true.
They did indeed enter the auto shop and tried to use a Groupon as payment, but they said the manager never offered to schedule another appointment. Instead, he outright refused service, began hurling “racial, misogynistic, and homophobic slurs,” and said Midas didn’t “serve people like you,” according to the suit.
“He immediately started laughing, and that’s when the ‘broke” comments came,” Canada told KTRK in September 2023, adding that when she and Douglas asked for a manager, he said, “‘I’m tired of you women coming in here thinking you know everything.’”
“‘Oh, since you want to be a man, why don’t you just change it yourself?’” Douglas said, also reciting the manager’s comments.
Both women said the encounter got violent when they got inside their car to leave, but the manager followed them and started kicking their vehicle. They said traffic also thwarted their attempts to leave the parking lot, which left them stuck.
Canada said she got out of the car to try to calm the man down, but he punched her in the face, then put Douglas in a chokehold.
“Every time he pushed her, he said, ‘You want to be a man? Fight me like a man,” Canada said of the attack.
When they were finally able to leave, they drove home and called the police. Responding officers escorted them back to the shop to get the accounts of all the parties involved, and that’s when the manager claimed he was the victim, they said.
“I didn’t even have on stilettos,” Canada said of the manager’s accusations. “We never laid a hand on him. It was all force against us, and we overly explained this to them.”
Despite the women’s objections to the manager’s allegations, police placed them under arrest. They believe the man’s status as the auto shop’s manager led police to believe him over them.
“Those two cops did not believe us. I told those two cops sitting in the back of the cop car you’re making a big mistake,” Canada said.
They filed their lawsuit against Midas and Groupon on April 11.
The complaint states that they “were publicly branded as violent criminals,” according to the Star-Telegram. The pair has since moved out of Houston for fear of their safety, alleging they suffered long-lasting emotional harm.