Guard says she was fired for reporting misuse of store security cameras.
A former security guard at the Target store in the River Park shopping center has filed a lawsuit that says the store's security manager used security cameras to zoom in on female customers and employees inappropriately.
Michelle Brown, who worked at Target from June 2006 until April this year, says she was fired from her job after reporting the manager's behavior to his supervisors.
Brown says she was also discriminated against because she is a woman and is black.
Brown's lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in Fresno County Superior Court, says security manager Chad McPherson used the security cameras for voyeuristic purposes rather than for keeping the store's customers safe and merchandise secure.
"McPherson would also use the security camera system to zoom in on women customers and other Target Corporation employees for extended periods of time while crudely zooming in on the customers' breasts and buttocks," the lawsuit says.
The store's human resources manager, Benjamin Garcia, said Wednesday that McPherson is still employed as the store's security manager.
Garcia, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said he could not comment on the allegations.
McPherson could not be reached for comment.
Target, which is also named in the lawsuit, issued a statement Wednesday that said it could not specifically comment on the lawsuit.
"We do not tolerate or condone discrimination in the workplace and have extensive policies, procedures and training in place to prevent these types of actions," the statement read in part.
Brown's attorney, Warren Paboojian, said Brown could not comment on her lawsuit at this time. But Paboojian said there are witnesses who can corroborate Brown's story.
The lawsuit says that Brown worked in a "discriminatory" and "hostile" environment. It says that in addition to using the security cameras inappropriately, McPherson would sometimes leave bottles of urine in Brown's work area, as well as spit bottles used for chewing tobacco.
The lawsuit says that McPherson and Garcia would refer to Brown and other black employees in the store as "brotha" and "sista." It also says that Brown was treated differently from male employees when it came to issues like overtime pay and employee disciplinary measures.
When Brown complained about McPherson and Garcia's actions, she was fired, the lawsuit says.
There are other reported examples in the United States of security guards using their positions for voyeuristic purposes.
In March 2007, two security guards in an Atlantic City, N.J., casino were disciplined for zooming their security cameras in on women wearing low-cut blouses and tight dresses.
In August 2007, a security guard in Spokane, Wash., was charged with four felony voyeurism charges for using security cameras on top of a federal courthouse complex to peep inside bedrooms of a hotel.
In June 2007, four women who worked at a department store in Athens, Ga., were awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars after they sued the store for installing a hidden camera in a stockroom where they often changed their clothes.
In April 2005, a San Francisco police officer was suspended from the department for using surveillance cameras to inappropriately watch women at San Francisco International Airport.
And in September 2003, police in Tuscaloosa, Ala., discovered that someone had diverted a traffic camera near the University of Alabama to zoom in on several young women walking by.
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