Jury: McDonald's liable in strip-search hoax

— -- A Kentucky jury has found McDonald's liable in the suit of a woman who said she was forced to strip in a McDonald's back office at the behest of a caller posing as a police officer.

Louise Ogborn, 21, had sued McDonald's, claiming the fast-food giant failed to warn her and other employees about the caller who already struck other McDonald's stores and other fast-food restaurants across the country.

Ogborn was awarded compensatory damages of over $1 million and punitive damages of $5 million.

Former assistant manager Donna Summers was awarded $100,000 in compensatory damages. Summers was awarded punitive damages of $1 million.

The jurors divided the blame equally for the incident between McDonald's and the hoax caller who pretended he was a police officer.

Jurors sorted through 31 pages of instructions and 12 verdicts.

Both Ogborn and Summers allege that the company failed to warn employees about hoax calls they knew had plagued dozens of its stores for years.

Ogborn, who was asking for more than $200 million in punitive and compensatory damages, says that as a result she was detained for 3 ½ hours at the Mount Washington store, where she was strip-searched and sexually assaulted.

Summers, who led the search at the direction of a caller who pretended to be a police officer investigating a theft, was asking for $50 million. She says she was convicted of unlawfully detaining Ogborn because of the company's negligence.

The jury's deliberations follow a four-week trial in Bullitt Circuit Court.

Contributing: Associated Press

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