THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411060173
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Police Officer Phillip R. Dixon Jr. has been shot at, spit on and assaulted. But when a restaurant manager accused him of eating pizza and paying for just a salad, that was the last straw.
So Dixon sued Pizza Hut and the manager for $10,000 for using ``insulting words.''
``This is my way of saying, `I was treated wrong and you ignored me when I brought it to your attention,' '' Dixon says.
Pizza Hut's local attorney is not amused. ``It's a massive overreaction to a pretty trivial event,'' lawyer David C. Bowen says.
The lawsuit was filed last month against Pizza Hut and manager Loretta Gary. It was moved Monday from General District Court to Circuit Court.
The incident happened a yearago at the Pizza Hut on Military Highway and Norview Avenue. Dixon was on duty and in uniform. He was eating lunch with another uniformed officer and a plain-clothes lieutenant. Dixon says he had salad and water. His companions had the pizza buffet.
But when the checks arrived, all three were billed for the pizza buffet. Dixon says he noted the error to the waitress and she agreed there was a mistake.
At the cash register, however, manager Gary insisted she had seen Dixon at the pizza buffet. An argument ensued. Finally, Dixon says, the manager agreed to charge him for the salad only, but as she rang it up, she said, ``That's all right. You won't be the first person who didn't pay for what they ate.''
``It was extremely embarrassing,'' Dixon recalls, ``to stand there and be accused of stealing pizza.''
Dixon wrote to Pizza Hut's president in Wichita, Kan. ``I have been a police officer for four years,'' Dixon wrote. ``I have been shot at, spit on, cursed at, and assaulted. None of those things have caused me such anguish, humiliation and hurt as did the unprovoked assault on my character and integrity in front of members of the public and my peers, by your employee.''
Dixon says he received a $5 gift certificate and a call from two vice presidents, who seemed unapologetic. So he sued.
``Just an apology would have been great,'' Dixon says. He says he rejected a $2,000 settlement offer.
Pizza Hut offers a different version of the events. Bowen, the company's attorney, says Dixon's fellow officers laughed at him at the cash register for making such a fuss.
Afterward, Bowen said, Dixon posted a note on the precinct bulletin board telling other police officers to boycott Pizza Hut.
``Yet people came in droves, every day that week, and specifically asked for Loretta Gary to wait on them,'' Bowen said.
Dixon says he will pursue his lawsuit and may raise his asking price to $100,000. ``Maybe it's a way of opening somebody's eyes in the big office,'' he says. ``If I'm being treated this way, maybe their everyday customers are being treated poorly.''
Bowen, the Pizza Hut attorney, said, ``I can't imagine anyone suing over this.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Phillip Dixon Jr. says he was accused of not paying for pizza. A
farce, says Pizza Hut.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUITS by CNB