McDonald's Attorney Blames 'Employee Mistakes' In Strip Search

SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The attorney for fast food giant McDonald's Corporation has blamed employee mistakes for a sexual assault on an 18-year-old worker in April 2004 at the chain's restaurant in Mount Washington. The location is about 20 miles south of Louisville.

W. R. Patterson said in opening remarks today in a civil trial that McDonald's had policies in place and warned employees in an effort to deal with a series of strip search hoaxes across the country.

Louise Ogborn has filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming it failed to warn her and other employees about a hoax caller who had already struck other McDonald's stores and other fast-food restaurants nation-wide. She's seeking more than $200 million.

Patterson said the assistant manager of the restaurant and her boyfriend should have never followed the demands of a caller claiming to be a police officer when they strip searched and sexually assaulted Ogborn.

Ogborn's attorney, Ann Oldfather, told jurors that McDonald's withheld or hid evidence of someone pretending to be a police officer calling a restaurant and walking employees through a strip search and sexual abuse of female employees.

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