Better watch out if you live in Colorado (home of the infamous Civil Rights Commission in the cake baking Supreme Court case). Not only are there eager beaver lawyers and the aggrieved looking for cases, but as this building owner learned the hard way, they can record your phone calls in the state!
Denver lessee Craig Caldwell wanted to sublet to Rashad Khan, so Caldwell taped phone conversations with the buildings owner.
In the Cake Baking case, the baker won. Here the building owner coughed up the dough to presumably make the case go away.
The Bangladeshi born father and son will receive $675,000 and their American cheerleader Craig Caldwell helped make it happen.
Caldwell wanted to sublet the property to them as he wanted out of his restaurant business and needed permission from the building’s owner to sublet to the Khans. Here is what happened…
Landlord settles discrimination case with Muslim father, son
DENVER (AP) — A Denver landlord who was recorded telling her tenant to find an “American person … good like you and me” to sublease her property instead of a Muslim father and son seeking to open their second restaurant must pay the men $675,000 under a settlement.
The three men sued last year, generating local news coverage and online pleas to boycott the woman’s business, which mirrored the response to racist comments captured on tape or video across the U.S. in recent months. Public attention soon faded, and attorneys said they were headed for trial until the night before jury selection was set to begin in Denver.
The parties finalized the settlement in April. Rashad Khan said it was a relief after more than a year of reliving his first experience of someone refusing to work with him and his father, Zuned, because of their faith and race.
The AP articlehas details and we pick up the story here….
….weeks went by without approval of the sublease agreement by the building’s owner, Katina Gatchis. Caldwell said he was shocked when the woman’s son blamed the Khans’ Islamic faith.
“I didn’t believe it, and I didn’t think anybody would believe me,” said Caldwell, who is 71 and white.
He decided to use a voice recording app on his cellphone during his next conversation with Gatchis. In Colorado, it is legal to secretly record a conversation if at least one participant consents.
“American person!” Gatchis said in the recording, provided to The Associated Press by Caldwell’s attorneys. “American person, I need. Good like you and me.”
Caldwell returned to see her a few days later. He hoped Gatchis would change her mind, but she remained insistent in a recording of that conversation.
“They bring all the Muslims from the Middle East, and then I have a problem around here, bam boom, bam boom,” she said.
[….]
Mohamedbhai was a 2017 Colorado Lawyer of the Year https://lawweekcolorado.com/2017/12/lawyers-year-qusair-mohamedbhai/
Caldwell took the recordings of Gatchis to his business attorney. He referred Caldwell to Denver attorney Qusair Mohamedbhai, whose firm often handles discrimination claims and other civil rights cases.
Mohamedbhai said proving discrimination is often difficult and credited Caldwell for speaking up. [Did Caldwell get a cut of the settlement?—ed]
“Businesses in Colorado and across the country should know that these laws are on the books, they are highly enforceable, and that if they will discriminate, people will stand up against them and tell them it is wrong,” Mohamedbhai said.
More here.
I sure would hate to be a landlord these days!
I wonder if there are cases where Muslim landlords refused Christian or Jewish tenants? Does anyone know?
6 thoughts on “Colorado: Building Owner Must Pay Muslim Father/Son $675,000 in Discrimination Case”
The story gives the race of everyone involved except the landlord. The quotes are clearly from someone who is not a native English speaker, and I suspect that Gatchis is an immigrant from somewhere in Asia who learned English after coming here. I also suspect that her background was omitted from the story so that people would assume she is white.
Excellent point. I noticed too that her use of language indicated she too is an immigrant. If anyone finds out where she is from let me know!
Ann, looking at the choice of words by Katina Gatchis (and her name), she sounds like an immigrant herself. Note the article did not say anything about her ancestry.
LOL! Good catch! Both you and Kay spotted the same thing!
Some moslems ignore or oppose the Koran’s most evil surahs and become great USAmerican citizens. https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/violence.aspx
Lawfare is a widely used practice in islamofascism. It is also a method used often by the Muslim Brotherhood and its front groups such as CAIR. This is a major fundraising method for “devout” moslems, many of whom have less than nothing to offer this country except persecution, lawfare, lawsuits, “supremacist theology,” and misery.
Totalitarian enemies of the USA should never be aided and abetted by our own government and courts, nor by citizen groups such as ACLU and others. We should bring back the McCarran-Walter Act and start applying it against moslem invaders.
The story gives the race of everyone involved except the landlord. The quotes are clearly from someone who is not a native English speaker, and I suspect that Gatchis is an immigrant from somewhere in Asia who learned English after coming here. I also suspect that her background was omitted from the story so that people would assume she is white.
Excellent point. I noticed too that her use of language indicated she too is an immigrant. If anyone finds out where she is from let me know!
Ann, looking at the choice of words by Katina Gatchis (and her name), she sounds like an immigrant herself. Note the article did not say anything about her ancestry.
LOL! Good catch! Both you and Kay spotted the same thing!
Some moslems ignore or oppose the Koran’s most evil surahs and become great USAmerican citizens. https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/violence.aspx
Lawfare is a widely used practice in islamofascism. It is also a method used often by the Muslim Brotherhood and its front groups such as CAIR. This is a major fundraising method for “devout” moslems, many of whom have less than nothing to offer this country except persecution, lawfare, lawsuits, “supremacist theology,” and misery.
Totalitarian enemies of the USA should never be aided and abetted by our own government and courts, nor by citizen groups such as ACLU and others. We should bring back the McCarran-Walter Act and start applying it against moslem invaders.