A former Walgreens employee has dropped her lawsuit against the pharmacy store chain in which she alleged she was forced to quit because management did not provide her a work environment free from drug addicts and shoplifters who plagued her Santa Monica store.
Kentrice Benjamin’s Beverly Hills Superior Court lawsuit alleged racial discrimination, work environment harassment and failure to prevent discrimination and harassment, as well as various violations of the state Labor Code. Benjamin sought at least $500,000 in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive damages.
The plaintiff’s attorney filed court papers with Judge Michael E. Whitaker asking that her case be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be revived. The court papers do not state whether a settlement was reached, but the parties filed joint pleadings with the judge in December stating that they were working toward a pretrial resolution of the case.
According to her suit, Benjamin was hired as a shift leader at the store in the 1900 block of Lincoln Boulevard in March 2024. The location was plagued by “vagrants, inebriates, drug addicts and chronic shoplifters,” the suit stated.
Benjamin and other employees “begged and pleaded” with management to provide more security and the plaintiff herself was “chronically threatened and attacked” at the store, according to the suit, which also stated that Benjamin, who is Black, was called the “N-word” by the intruders.
“She would frequently end her evening in tears at the horrific and stressful work environment,” the suit stated.
Rather than instruct employees to leave the shoplifters alone, Benjamin’s manager often asked her to confront the shoplifters and vagrants and tell them to not come back, the suit stated.
“This culminated in plaintiff being attacked and assaulted and battered and spit on by a violent serial shop lifter,” the suit stated while adding that Benjamin ultimately was forced to resign because of the work conditions.
Benjamin also contended that she was not compensated for missed meal and rest breaks and that her manager called her on the plaintiff’s personal phone without reimbursing her. She additionally maintained she was not immediately paid all wages owed her when she resigned.