Cabbie Ordered to Pay $15,000 After Telling Women to Quit Kissing or Get Out
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“Keep that for the bedroom or get out of the cab,” New York City taxi driver Mohammed Dahbi told Spitzer and her girlfriend, Kassie Thorton. (Full disclosure: Spitzer is an employee of Pivot, TakePart’s sister company.)
That comment will cost Dahbi. After filing a complaint alleging discrimination against the couple’s sexual orientation, the women finally received their day in court in March, more than three years after the 2011 incident. A few weeks later, the residing judge recommended a ruling in their favor, awarding $5,000 in damages to each of the women, slapping a $5,000 fine on the city, and requiring an antidiscrimination course for Dahbi.
“The recommendation…for him to undergo some human rights training [is] for us the ultimate reward,” Spitzer told TakePart.
Under New York state law, public and private businesses are prohibited from refusing service based on sexual orientation. Yet, in Spitzer’s opinion, Dahbi doesn’t think he did anything wrong. Dahbi’s lawyer, Ali Najmi, claims that the driver often told heterosexual couples to quit fooling around in his cab because they were distracting him from driving. “My client never once mentioned anything about their sexuality and never threw them out of the taxi,” Najmi told the New York Post. (Read more from “Cabbie Ordered to Pay $15,000 After Telling Women to Quit Kissing or Get Out” HERE)
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