The lawyer for a coffee house at the center of a racial discrimination legal battle fired back on Monday threatening to sue the women who filed what he calls a "fraudulent" lawsuit against the cafe's owners alleging they were kicked out because they're Muslim.
David Yerushalmi, the lawyer for the owners of Urth Caffé in Laguna Beach, said the seven women who claimed they were kicked out of the coffee shop on April 22, were not kicked out maliciously nor were they singled out for their race. They were asked to leave after a 45-minute time limit to clear the table so other patrons could sit down.
"They know very well that there was no wrongdoing there," Yerushalmi said.
He threatened to countersue Sara Farsakh, her co-plaintiffs and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group for Muslims that has spoken out in support of the women. CAIR does not legally represent the plaintiffs.
Farsakh and the others filed a lawsuit on May 2, claiming cafe employees kicked them out because they were Muslim women wearing hijabs who "stood out — visibly stood out — tarnishing their image," Farsakh said in a news conference after filing the complaint in Orange County Superior Court.
Jilla Berkman, who co-founded Urth Caffé with her husband, is Muslim, her attorney said. The cafe serves a clientele that is largely Muslims of Middle Eastern descent, Yerushalmi said.
"It's absurd to argue that a Muslim woman running a coffee house will somehow discriminate the same clients that keep their business going," he said.
Mohammad Tajsar, the plaintiffs' attorney, said the owner's race is irrelevant.
"We know it when we see it, and this is a classic case of discrimination," said Tajsar.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
Editor's note (5:35 p.m. PST, May 10, 2016): This story was updated to clarify the relationship between the plaintiffs and the Council on American Islamic Relations.
