Whistleblower Suit Filed by Former Cherry Hill DSW Employee

A former assistant manager at the DSW in the Towne Place at Garden State Park is suing the company, claiming she was wrongfully fired after reporting a customer to New Jersey’s child protective services last year.

Following several months of legal wrangling, Mary Stapleton, of Mount Laurel, filed an amended whistleblower suit in federal court last week, just over a year after she was fired from her position as assistant merchandise manager at the Cherry Hill store, seeking more than $75,000 in pay and damages.

She lost her job March 31, 2012, four days after handing over a customer’s personal information to another employee who filed a complaint to the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP), according to the suit, and Stapleton claims the firing came from a store policy prohibiting the use of customer private information that’s incompatible with public policy.

Attorneys for DSW Shoe Warehouse Inc. tried to quash the suit, asserting Stapleton wasn’t a whistleblower under state law.

“According to the complaint, she did not voice any disagreement with her employer’s policy until after her discharge—at best, she simply disregarded it,” they wrote in a motion to dismiss the suit, which was denied.

The alleged incident involved a mother and her 22-month old daughter who were shopping in the Cherry Hill DSW on March 27, 2012, according to court documents.

After a coworker noticed the child painting store shelves with a bottle of nail polish, Stapleton approached the little girl who, as she wrote in her claim, “smelled strongly of feces” and was being ignored by her mother.

Over the next several minutes, Stapleton wrote, she watched the girl, covered in nail polish, approach several other customers and tug on their clothing to get attention, as the girl’s mother continued to ignore her.

Finally, Stapleton wrote she approached the girl’s mother and suggested she change the toddler’s diaper, only to have the customer—who allegedly went on to shop for another two hours—refuse, claiming she didn’t have the necessary supplies with her.

When the woman and her daughter checked out, Stapleton wrote, the little girl tossed several items on to the store’s floor, prompting a threat of violence from the mother.

Following a discussion with another store employee, Stapleton, who had gotten the customer’s name and address while processing a return, wrote that she turned that information over to the employee, who then made a complaint to DCPP.

DCPP officials, in turn, made contact with the store the following day, Stapleton wrote, which eventually resulted in Stapleton recounting the incident and the report to DCPP to her district manager, who notified the company’s human resources department.

Two days after that, Stapleton was fired for disclosing a customer’s personal information, she wrote.

That action violated the state whistleblower law, the suit alleges, given Stapleton wrote she believed the child’s best interests outweighed the need to keep that information private.

Stapleton is seeking back pay, front pay and damages, according to the suit.