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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller "got irate and yelled" when a restaurant refused a discount for a family meal, a former waitress says in a $2.5 million lawsuit.
Miller, who was unavailable Saturday for a response, used a "loud and abusive voice" to confront the waitress and "berated, threatened, intimidated and shouted at her, using profane language and otherwise terrorizing her," says the suit filed by Kristie Hysell, who worked at Snappy Service diner at Miller's Jordan Commons mall.
Miller and his family were at Snappy Service Jan. 1, the complaint says. The diner's Web page says Miller loves the diner's french fries.
The millionaire businessman had no problem with the food but wasn't happy when he saw a bill minus a discount he expected as part of the Larry H. Miller Management Group, the waitress recounted.
After consulting with a manager, Hysell returned to tell Miller that she had to charge his family the full amount. Hysell says his tirade left her in tears and she quit working there.
"For some time afterward she continued to have terrible thoughts about how a man of his stature could use his position of power and dominance to terrorize a lowly employee, all over a little discount on a bill at a fast food restaurant," Hysell's attorney, James Medlin, wrote in the complaint.
Miller, who has an unlisted home phone number, couldn't be reached by The Associated Press Saturday. No one answered his office phone. His attorney, Jazz President Dennis Haslam, didn't return a message. Jazz spokesman Kim Turner, reached in Idaho, said he knew nothing about the complaint and couldn't provide a response.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
