Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1993. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, November 30, 1993
Ken Hoover, Chronicle Staff Writer
Steven Schectman said he wants to send a message to other employers who might fire a worker for having AIDS that the consequences can go beyond what a jury can award.
"Simply because a jury comes in with a verdict does not mean the issue is forgotten. What he (Stars owner Jeremiah Tower) did was really reprehensible," Schectman said.
Schectman said he is talking to community groups and political leaders about a boycott of the fashionable restaurant, a hangout for the city's political and social elite.
On Wednesday, a Superior Court jury voted 9 to 3 in favor of Rolando Iglesias, 35.
Tower contended during the 2 1/2-week trial that Iglesias was fired in December 1991 because he told a customer falsely that the restaurant was out of a particular kind of souffle. The restaurant said that it was near the end of Iglesias' workday, and he wanted to go home rather than wait the 30 minutes it would take to prepare the souffle.
But the jury found that the restaurant violated the state's Fair Employment and Housing Act, which forbids discrimination based on a physical disability.
Bonnie Glatzer, who represented Tower and Stars, said the award was a low amount, and the verdict was a "compromise" reached by jurors eager to finish in time to go home for Thanksgiving.
Schectman, who conceded that the amount was low, said that the jury answered a question on the verdict form indicating that they did not believe Tower's testimony that he did not know Iglesias had AIDS when he fired him.
However, in a statement released yesterday, Tower said, "I was gratified that the jury found there was no malice on my part. I take the verdict as a compromise which we most certainly intend to appeal.
"I share everyone's sympathy and concern for Rolando Iglesias in his present condition. But I did not know at the time he was terminated that he was HIV-positive.
"I know that Stars terminated Iglesias for lying to customers and denying them service, as he honestly admitted in his letter to us when we asked him for an explanation about the incident."
Tower and his representatives were not available for comment on Schectman's plans for a boycott.
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