Corpun file 8660 at www.corpun.com

New York Post, 15 February 2002

No Dough For Spanked Pizza Kid

By Rita Delfiner

An upstate judge delivered a slice of bad news to a young Pizza Hut worker whose boss ordered him to spank himself with his own belt and say a prayer -- he tossed the teen's civil-rights claim.

The bizarre events three years ago that led then-18-year-old delivery driver Toby Yerry to take Pizza Hut to court in Utica began with a question about dough -- the green kind.

Yerry was working for the Gloversville Pizza Hut in February 1999. He returned one day after finishing his deliveries, and his supervisor, Charles White, asked him about a missing delivery ticket, the New York Law Journal reported yesterday.

Yerry found the ticket in his car and handed it to his boss, along with the money for that particular delivery.

White accused the teen of trying to steal the money and said he deserved to be punished.

White first came up with the notion that he would spank Yerry and that the teen would say a prayer.

Yerry said no, but, afraid of losing his job, agreed to go into a locked rest room with his boss, where the teen lowered his pants and spanked himself, the Journal said.

The next day, Yerry reported the incident to the restaurant manager and White was suspended. The teen sought damages under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But a federal judge dismissed his complaint, saying that while the supervisor's actions created a hostile work environment, Pizza Hut did the right thing -- it suspended the supervisor, who never came back to work.

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