9 black former workers at NSB's Ocean View nursing home claim racial discrimination

July 21--During her initial nursing home job interview, Soondy Jegede, who is African-American, said she was told that her biggest challenge would be the color of her skin.

Once Jegede started her job as director of nursing she said she found out that was all too true. Now Jegede and eight other African-Americans who formerly worked at Ocean View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in New Smyrna Beach have filed a lawsuit against the concern and its parent companies, Millenium Health Systems and Nuvision Management, alleging the women were victims of racial discrimination and harassment over a period of more than two years.

When Jegede and the other women complained, they were retaliated against by either being fired or being forced out, the lawsuit states.

Jegede, who is 39 and lives in Ormond Beach, became emotional during an interview at the office of her attorney Kelly H. Chanfrau, who is representing the women along with attorneys Philesha H. Huggins and Alfred Truesdell.

"It's very hard when you grow up and your parents tell you you can be anything, you can do anything," Jegede said. "And you're journeying through life doing that and then to come up against something, so hateful to have to question my values, to have to question all the hard work that I've done just because the color of my skin."

Michael Tricarico, an attorney for the nursing home, denied the allegations in an interview and in a response filed in circuit court. He said the company has a diverse workforce at all its locations throughout the state.

"They've had a long history of having minorities in managerial positions and that was certainly true at Ocean View," Tricarico said. "Three of the plaintiffs were in managerial positions. The other plaintiffs in the lawsuit all reported to one of the three plaintiffs who had authority to discipline."

Tricarico said that the three managers used that power to discipline other employees but they did not discipline anyone for the allegations they describe in the lawsuit.

The nursing home investigated and found the women's claims to be unfounded, Tricarico said.

Besides Jegede, the plaintiffs are Shaneika Johnson, staffing coordinator; Racquel McZeal, LPN; Latisa Mott, Shakeidra Rotich, case mix manager; Erika Cuthrell, CNA; Roshanda Ivey, clinical manager; and Natasha Lherisson, admission director and Aneser Woulard, assistant director of nursing.

* The lawsuit outlines a number of ugly allegations against white employees including:

* Referring to the African-American women with the N-word

* Commenting about voodoo

* Posting on Facebook a photo of a slave women with a caption saying they were headed to Ocean View

* Calling the women monkeys

The lawsuit states there were references that blacks should put a "noose" around their necks and hang themselves.

The suit was filed in Volusia County in June and seeks more than $15,000 which is the benchmark for a suit to be filed in in Circuit Court.

The lawsuit states that a white male employee referred to Jegede as a fat N-word. But the nursing home's administrator refused to let her fire the man.

"Jegede begged for defendants to take action to stop the harassment that was permeating and infiltrating the entire facility. Nothing was done by defendants to stop the unlawful harassment," the lawsuit states.

According to the suit, a white manager at the nursing home told two of the African-American women that the nursing home "had a practice of throwing away" job applications from African Americans.

Jegede was fired on May 26, 2017, eight days after she filed a complaint with the EEOC, according to the lawsuit.

Chanfrau said the problems at Ocean View were not a secret.

"We intend to show to the jury that this was well known throughout the state. Everyone knew that this was a problem," she said in an interview.

"We have evidence that will show that the director of nursing of the building acknowledged to Soondy and the other African-American women that the treatment of them was malicious," Chanfrau said.

Truesdell said the lawsuit was the worst he had seen in his 25 years of practicing employment law.

"This is the most egregious race discrimination lawsuit that I've ever worked on," Truesdell said. "The discrimination is more blatant and more overt than in any case I've ever seen."

Huggins added her own examples.

"Their unborn monkey children, comments about wearing a noose and hanging themselves just provocative racial comments that aren't appropriate," Huggins said.

In its response the nursing home said an employee did post a photo on social media for which the employee was disciplined.

Tricarico also states that only Jegede and Cuthrell were fired by Ocean View which had a basis to do so. Also fired was an administrator who Jegede had filed a complaint against, Tricarico's response says.

Jegede said that during the hiring process she told one of the people interviewing her that she was worried about having to someday evacuate the patients.

Jegede said the man told her " 'Oh, the ocean is never going to be your problem. Your biggest issue is going to be the color of your skin.' "

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