15-year-old McDonald’s worker raped by co-worker, a registered sex offender, TX suit says
.png "A 15-year-old girl was raped by her McDonald’s co-worker who was a registered sex offender, according to a lawsuit.")
A 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by her McDonald’s co-worker who was a registered sex offender, her Texas family said in a lawsuit.
The lawsuit names McKinney Restaurant Management Inc., McDonald’s Corporation and McDonald’s USA LLC as defendants. McKinney Restaurant Management Inc. owned the McDonald’s location as a franchisee where the girl worked and was sexually assaulted, according to the suit.
McKinney Restaurant Management Inc. did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Oct. 15. In a response to the suit filed Sept. 27, McDonald’s Corporation denied liability for the sexual assault.
In February 2023, the girl was hired at a McDonald’s in Hearne, according to a lawsuit filed on her behalf.
According to the document, 28-year-old Eric Price was a registered sex offender, which was known to McDonald’s at the time he was hired, and was sentenced to six years parole/mandatory supervision after being convicted of the sexual assault of a child.
Still, Price was allowed to work alongside teenagers, the lawsuit said.
“At the time Price applied for a job at McDonald’s, he was on the Registered Sex Offender list. It takes approximately thirty seconds to confirm the sex-offender registration status of any job applicant. Thirty seconds is not too unreasonable a burden to place on employers with a known history of sexual assault or for those who employ children,” the lawsuit said.
The girl had worked less than two months at the McDonald’s when she was raped by Price, the lawsuit said.
“(The manager) negligently permitted Price to lure (the girl) to an area behind the McDonald’s that was not monitored by security cameras. While on the clock, and while being paid to do so, Price raped (her) by a trash dumpster then returned to work as if nothing happened,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said McDonald’s failed to protect the girl when Price was scheduled to work the same shifts as her and other teenagers.
“We want McDonald’s to be held accountable for providing a convicted child rapist with his own hunting grounds, opportunity, and victim. McDonald’s is known as ‘America’s First Job’ and we want to make sure this is something no family in the country should have to go through ever again,” attorney William Calderon told McClatchy News in an email.
Price had been convicted twice of sex-related crimes against minors, the lawsuit said. He assaulted a 13-year-old girl and was convicted of indecency with a child by exposure in 2014, court documents said. He was also convicted in 2016 of the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl.
Price is now serving a 40-year prison sentence after being convicted of assaulting his 15-year-old McDonald’s co-worker, Calderon said in a news release.
McDonald’s Corporation “denies that it had any employees at the Premises where the alleged acts and/or omissions giving rise to Plaintiff’s claims are alleged to have occurred at the time when such incident is alleged to have occurred.”
The lawsuit is asking for over $1 million in damages.
Hearne is about a 90-mile drive northeast of Austin.
This story was originally published October 15, 2024 at 1:33 PM.
