KENT, Wash. — A man from Kent may soon take legal action against a Portland hotel he accuses of racial profiling.
Jermaine Massey, 34, has hired an attorney after he claims he was kicked out of the Double Tree Hotel in Portland Saturday.
Massey said he was on his phone in the lobby calling his mother when he was approached by security and a manager -- who later called the cops -- accusing him of trespassing.
KIRO 7 reached out to his attorney, Jason Karoufy, based in Portland.
“I think both of them should be fired,” said Karoufy. “He was the only black person in the lobby, he was the only person security approached and the only one treated this way.”
Karoufy said the Double Tree has requested a private discussion with Massey but his client wants a public response on why he was targeted for doing nothing wrong.
On Twitter today, Double Tree posted, "The employees involved have since been placed on leave for the duration of this investigation and we will take the appropriate measures to ensure this does not happen again."
Karoufy told me a lawsuit is possible but first his client needs the hotel to step up and answer to the actions of their employees.
“They need to have a policy that clearly states you can’t treat people differently by the color of their skin and here they obviously weren’t enforcing any policy like that.”
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