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He says he was attacked as grocery workers stood by, but they deny he had told them earlier to call for police.
By CHASE SQUIRES
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 6, 2001
DADE CITY -- A 41-year-old Dade City man who claims he was beaten by a group of teenagers in a Winn-Dixie grocery store parking lot filed suit against the chain Friday, seeking more than $15-million.
Thomas Wayne Prince claims in his suit he was inside the grocery store at 5351 Village Market, Wesley Chapel, on March 3, 1999, when five teens began using loud and profane language toward him and his 16-year-old daughter. Prince's suit claims he asked a checkout clerk and a store manager to call for police, but neither did.
In the parking lot outside the store, Prince claims he was attacked from behind and beaten, later needing reconstructive surgery to repair damage to his face.
But a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report of the incident gives another version, and after the investigation and a consultation with prosecutors, the State Attorney's Office dropped the case and no one was charged with a crime.
According to witness accounts given to sheriff's deputies, the incident began when a girl in a checkout line made an obscene gesture with her finger. Her boyfriend said the girl was giving "the finger" to someone outside, but Prince believed it was aimed at him and took offense.
Sheriff's Deputy George Peterson concluded after several interviews that Prince was the one who invited the group of young people to come outside the store after the disagreement, and when they didn't join him in the parking lot, he returned to the store to again invite them to step outside with him.
In a followup interview, Peterson said Prince recalled telling the teens inside the store, "You bit off more than you can chew."
According to the report, Prince also told the deputy he asked a cashier to have a store manager call for police, but a store clerk said Prince didn't ask for help until after the altercation turned physical.
In the lawsuit, filed for by Dade City attorney Audy Roy Watson, Prince claims "Employees ... failed to take even the most simple and humane precautions of calling the police after having witnessed the verbal altercation inside the store."
County court records show Prince was charged in 1998 with aiming a pistol at a firefighter who was investigating a brush fire. Prince later pleaded no contest to a charge of improper exhibition of a firearm. The record also shows he was later accused of violating his one-year probation by owning a pistol.
Prince is suing Winn-Dixie for $150,000 in medical expenses, $5-million for failing to provide a safe environment and $10-million in punitive damages.
Neither Watson nor a Winn-Dixie spokesman returned calls for comment Monday.