Louise Ogborn
Louise Ogborn is a Mount Washington, Kentucky resident who gained national attention after being stripped naked, spanked, and sexually humiliated by her employers while working at McDonald's. The entire three-hour incident was captured on videotape by an overhead security camera.
Background
Trying to financially assist her ill mother, who had recently lost her job, Louise (then 18 and a senior in high school), took a $6.35/hour job at the local McDonald's.
On a busy Friday evening of April 9, 2004, Louise's supervisor received a phone call from someone pretending to be a police officer. The caller instructed the supervisor to have Louise immediately strip-searched for an alleged stolen purse.
Louise's supervisor ordered the shocked teenage girl to strip completely naked, then confiscated all her clothes and cell phone. Over the next several hours, Louise was sexually humiliated and thoroughly degraded. Her vulva was inspected and male co-workers were asked to observe and then comment in front of Louise about her nude body. A male non-employee, Walter Nix, then spanked the completely naked Louise repeatedly on her bare buttocks for ten minutes. She later was forced to perform fellatio on him.
Her ordeal didn't end until a 58 year-old maintenance man, who was asked to observe and comment on Louise's nudity, suspected something just wasn't right. Adding to Louise's humiliation was that all of this was captured on videotape, portions of which were later aired on ABC's Primetime. When she later filed a lawsuit against McDonald's, the jury, male judge, attorneys and others sat and watched the unedited version of the videotape in full-color, which showed Louise's naked humiliation completely uncensored.
Seeks Publicity to Help in Lawsuit
After getting nowhere in attempts to have McDonald's settle out of court, Louise Ogborn went public with her degrading humiliation. In a widely publicized interview on ABC News' 20/20, Ogborn detailed what happened to her and filed a $200 million lawsuit against the restaurant chain.[1] Within days virtually every major network as well as countless newspapers, including the USA Today, were doing news stories about what had happened to Louise and other strip-search victims.
Ogborn Wins Lawsuit
McDonald's argued in legal briefs that Louise was free to leave her manager's office at any time. But Louise told ABC News that though she wanted to run, it would have been too humiliating for her to run out into the main area of the crowded restaurant at evening meal time completely naked. As the time passed, she also became too frightened and was badly spanked when initially refusing to obey Nix's demands.
The Louisville Courier-Journal gave extensive daily coverage to the trial, as well as all of the Louisville local television stations. The trial was also covered nationally by most major media outlets.[2] Ogborn's lawsuit also received world-wide attention[3] and sparked numerous debate on internet chat forums about what she should or shouldn't have done when called to her manager's office.
On October 5, 2006, a jury in Bullitt County, Kentucky awarded Louise $5 million in punitive damages and an additional $1.1 million in compensatory damages and expenses.[4] The judge in the case, Tom McDonald, later ordered McDonald's to pay an additional $2.4 million in legal fees to Ogborn's attorneys.
McDonald's immediately appealed the verdict. The appeal was heard by the Kentucky Court of Appeals in May 2009.
Uncensored Videotape Reaches Internet
In March 2009 Louise Ogborn suffered additional public humiliation when portions of the uncensored version of the videotape made its way to several public file sharing websites. All of what is seen in the uncensored video had already been reported in various printed news and media reports leading up to and throughout the trial and censored versions of the video, which blurred Louise's breasts, buttocks and pubic area to protect her modesty, had previously aired on ABC's Primetime Live and 20/20.
The uncensored footage, however, shows Louise completely nude with both of her legs propped up and spread wide open as Walter Nix inspects her vulva. She is also forced to masturbate herself and then made to stand in front of Nix and do exercises, with her bare breasts and unshaved pubic area all captured on tape. Some vidcaps on several websites promoting the uncensored videotape version also show Louise bending down on the floor with her bare buttocks being spanked by Nix.
Verdict Upheld on Appeal
On November 20, 2009, the Kentucky Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the lower court jury's decision and the $6.1 million in damages awarded to Ogborn.
'She was deprived of her clothes and all her other possessions,' Judge Glenn Acree wrote for the three-judge panel. 'And Ogborn did not only face the false assertion of police authority, but she also faced the real authority of her supervisors.'
Feature film adaptation
An independent film based on this incident called Compliance was released in 2012. This is a serious, nonexploitive drama that was well-received by film critics. The characters' names have been changed – Ogborn, played by Dreama Walker, is called Becky – but the story faithfully recreates the actual events, including the humiliating spanking scene.
See also
Sources
- ↑ Source: [http://www.kentuckylawblog.com/2008/11/trials-judge-to.html 'Restaurant Shift Turns Into Nightmare,' ABC News 20/20, November 10, 2005
- ↑ Source: [http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-09-mcdonaldslawsuit_N.htm 'Trial to start for $200 million lawsuit over strip-search hoax,' USA Today, September 9, 2007
- ↑ Source: [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071006/mc_lawsuit_071006?s_name=&no_ads= 'Ex-McDonald's worker wins lawsuit over strip search,' CTV, (Canadian TV broadcasting network) October 6, 2007
- ↑ Source: Strip-Search Case Victim Awarded $6.1 Million - ABC News
External links
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root