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February 28, 2003/Adar1 26 5763, Vol. 55, No. 27
Pinnacle Nissan settles suit
BARRY COHEN
Editor
A workplace discrimination case against a Scottsdale car dealership has been settled.
A supervisor at the dealer-ship allegedly had told a Jewish employee that "Hitler didn't kill enough Jews."
Pinnacle Nissan agreed to a two-year consent decree in the court case filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in September 2000. The settle-ment was announced Feb. 19.
The EEOC charged Pinnacle Nissan with violating the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1991 by engaging in discriminatory practices against seven former employees - including Sam Einhorn, the only Jewish plaintiff.
The EEOC prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, gender or disability.
The EEOC charged "that Pinnacle Nissan has subjected a class of employees to a hostile work environment due to their national origin and subjected Samuel Einhorn to a hostile work environment due to his religion," according to the consent decree.
Einhorn was called a "kike," said Mary Jo O'Neill, regional attorney for the EEOC Phoenix District Office. Black employees were called "porch monkeys" and Hispanic em-ployees "wetbacks," added Stephen Montoya, a Phoenix attorney who worked in association with the EEOC.
The consent decree - an injunction signed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona and voluntarily entered into by Pinnacle Nissan and the plaintiffs represented by the EEOC - will last two years.
With the decree, Pinnacle Nissan has agreed "to make significant changes to improve the workplace," said O'Neill.
The agreement includes $521,000 in damages award-ed to the seven former employees and legal fees. In addition, an ombudsper- son will be appointed by Pinnacle Nissan to review its anti-discrimination policy, establish a diversity aware-ness program and discipline and terminate employees for violating anti-harassment policies.
"The consent decree goes a long way to ensure that (harassment) will not happen again (at Pinnacle Nissan)," said Montoya.
Einhorn said he is pleased with the settlement.
"It was a long and hard fight," he said. "I feel vindicated and successful ... and hope that (discrimi-nation) does not happen anymore at Pinnacle Nissan or anywhere else."
Einhorn is currently employed at Lund Cadillac and he established a credit counseling business four months ago.
Einhorn and six fellow employees - Hispanic, Syrian and black - filed the case against the dealership, in association with the EEOC and Montoya.
"Einhorn should be treated as a hero," said Montoya. "He stood up (against discrim-inatory practices) when so many others refused."
Pinnacle Nissan in October 2001 charged Montoya with defamation of character, related to the case filed by the EEOC.
"They filed a defamation case against me in an effort to intimidate me," said Montoya.
The defamation suit is meant "to chill other civil rights lawyers from getting involved with (similar) cases," said O'Neill.
The defamation case is still pending.
Calls to Pinnacle Nissan were not returned.
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