Hotel Owner's Attorney Speaks Out Against Racial Discrimination Accusations
By: Danielle Todesco
Updated: February 4, 2009
Hotel owner accused of racial discrimination had his lawyer speak about his case Tuesday.
Lubbock Attorney Fernando Bustos says Seminole Inn owner Henry Shaw was referred to him Tuesday to represent his side of the case. Bustos tells KLBK the Gault family's accusations are completely untrue.
Bustos says Henry was the only person working at the hotel that day back in June when Gwenda Gault says she was refused service at the Inn. She says she went outside and a hotel owner yelled racial slurs at her and her family. But Bustos says Henry went outside with the family to look for the person responsible, and found no one.
Now, the Gault family is seeking their lawyer fees paid for, an unspecified amount of money, and they want the hotel owners to take a racial sensitivity class. Bustos says that is absurd.
"He is a minority himself so it's hard to see that someone from that demographic and profile would need cultural and racial sensitivity training."
Bustos says he has contacted Gault's attorney in Austin and is hoping to have the whole case dismissed. But he says there are already several African American clients of the Seminole Inn ready to testify on Henry's behalf.
