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Show PAGE2 UNIVERSITY JOURNAL CAMPUS NEWS Domino’s denies allegations of discrimination (continued from page 1) have no way to contact the driver.” “What she was asking was untreasonable, and we weren't getting anywhere,” he continued. “I told her that I was hanging up. I told her that when the driver showed up she ‘would just have to explain the situation to her and not pay.” When Weideman told her he was hanging up, Rosanna Tuliapupu said she was incredulous. “I said, ‘Are you serious?” and he hung up,” she said. Weideman said that when Rosanna Tuliapupu called to cancel the order, the delivery person was in the parking lot getting ready to leave. “We thought she had left with the order,” he said, “but sometime after the call was over, she came back inside the store without having delivered it; she did not have a complete address on a different order.” The delivery person was informed about the situation, and Weideman said he “simply canceled the [Tuliapupu] order.” It is a policy once an order cannot cancel “It's like any at Domino’s in Cedar City that leaves the store, the customer: the order. restaurant; you can’t change your mind after ordering and say you atre leaving,” Pietrzak said. “The order was already on its way.” “What we do in those situations is just take the pizza back. We have never before, in that kind of situation, taken legal action to get the cost of an order,” he added. Rosanna Tuliapupu said she and her husband wanted to file a complaint about her conversation with Skinner. “We wanted to be there to talk with them in person so they couldn’t hang up on us again,” she said. Domino’s employee James Threet, 25, Cedar City, said that about 15 to 30 minutes after the cancellation, Turnbull Tuliapupu walked in and “started yelling for [Skinner].” Rosanna Tuliapupu said she stayed in the car with their children while her husband went in to file a complaint. “They were animatedly rehearsing the phone conversation they just had with my wife when I walled in,” Tuliapupu said. “I was frustrated, and we got into an argument,” In his letter, Tuliapupu said he asked to speak to the manager. “He said [in the letter] that he asked for me, but he never did,” Weideman said. Weideman described his job as “weird” and “not always safe.” “We send drivers to homes hoping that [the customers] ate good people,” he said. “Unfortunately, drivers and managers get killed. We don’t deal with people who react by yelling. He didn’t come in to have a nice \casyal conversation. In my opinion, he wanted to beat people up.” THURSDPAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2002 Sy Sgt. Dave Holm, spokesman for the Cedar City Police Department, said if a customer is yelling, a husmuq manager’s concern is justified. Skinner said Tuliapupu was confrontational. him as he was leaving, “I'll be waiting “He said, ‘Come here, tough guy,” and kept outside; I'll find you.” ' interrupting me when I tried to reply by Tuliapupu flatly denied that ’llngdthfl saying, ‘Why were you rude to my wife?’” ‘I never said I would threaten physical Skinner said. « violence,” he said. “I didn’t say I would be Another Domino’s employee, Brandon waiting for him outside or that I would find Williams, a senior communication major from him.” Blackfoot, Idaho, who described himself as Jared Harvey, 27, another Domino’s Tuliapupu’s friend, said he stood between the employee, said he heard Tuliapupu say as he two men. left that the employees had called police “I'was the only one in the store who knew: “because we were afraid that a big brown guy him,” Williams said. “Turnbull is a big guy 'was in the store.” and [Skinner] isn’t.” Soon after he and Williams walked outside, Getting between them wasn't necessary, Tuliapupu said police arrived and said they Tuliapupu said. were responding to a call of a fight in “I'm a loud person, but I never threatened progress. physical violence,” he said. “There was no fight in progress, though, Laundra said cultural differences probably and I didn’t threaten anyone physically,” played a part in the incident. Tuliapupu said. “I felt like a criminal.” “Polynesians have a different way of dealing Weideman said he decided not to press with things that white people interpret as charges because he just wanted Tuliapupu threatening,” he said. “The fact that he’s so out of the store. However, Williams said he big prompted the Domino’s response as had to talk the manager out of pressing well.” charges. Williams said he was “I didn’t want him to get “pretty sure Turnbull B9kl W in trouble,” said Williams, wouldn’t try anything “Turnbull left, and I violent, but I figured assumed everything was that by being there-in cool.” front of him, I would Holm said the situation. definitely prevent was “worked out at the anything from scene.” happening.” Tuliapupu said he still Tuliapupu said he doesn’t understand why asked to talk with anyone said a fight was in Weideman, but that ! progress. Weideman asked him to G492 “The cops told me to drop leave. i b it, but I said, ‘Hey, this guy “He was cussing a lot. = is falsifying a report-there in front of some: ‘was no fight in progress. customers-a little girl ((AHEE BV What are you going to do and her family-and I about it?"” he said. “They told him he was going said, “You know what, stay to have to leave,” away. You can't come here Weideman said. P anymore. Get your pizza Williams said Tuliapupu was in the store for elsewhere.’ I told them I came to file a formal about one minute. complaint, not to get pizza, but they wouldn’t “I 'was trying to calm him down and to get listen.” him to leave,” Williams said. “[Weideman] His wife said police should have taken. asked him to leave twice, then called the action against Domino’s for filing a false cops.” report. Weideman said he called the police because Holm said the dispute over the “false the argument seemed to be escalating. repott” was probably a matter of semantics. “He said he was not going to leave so I told When the manager called the dispatcher and him that if he didn't leave, I would call the said a fight was in progress, he said, he was cops,” Weideman said. “He said, ‘Fine, call the not falsifying a report, but instead probably fing cops.’ If there’s a disturbance in an just didn’t know what else to call it. establishment, a person will call security. In “The manager said there was a fight when this case, I had to call the cops. only words were being exchanged,” Holm “That’s what we do when someone causes a said. “We get calls all the time where people scene,” he added. may say that they have been robbed, but have While Weideman was on the phone with actually been burglarized. We just respond to the 911 operator, he said Williams tried to get what we are dispatched to.” Tuliapupu to leave, “to do him a favor.” He Tuliapupu said he shook hands with each said Tuliapupu “continued to cuss over and police officer, a fact Williams confirmed. over agaify; I'told the 911 operatorI had an, | SThey told me to leave,, but I couldn’t 1, irate customer and that the situation ‘would* because a lady cop had my car boxed in and escalate into a fight.” wouldn’t let me out,” he said. ‘I asked her to At that point, Williams said he persuaded move and she said ‘No,’ sarcastically to me. Tuliapupu to come outside. They were just sitting and chatting. I felt However, Weideman said Tuliapupu warned humiliated.” Holm said the police officer probably did ‘not move her car because the investigation was not yet complete. “I can understand how he feels, but they needed to finish the job before they could move out of the way,” Holm said. In his letter to the editor, Tuliapupu said he was “sentenced right there in the store, to be treated as a criminal by Domino’s Pizza and a racially-biased Cedar City Police Department.” “If there is an accusation of racism, we’ll look into it,” Holm said. “I wasn't there that night, but it’s hard to believe that there’s an officer in the department who would be racist. We have a good group of people working here. “If there were no racial statements made, 1 don’t see how anyone could find racism in this incident,” he added. Laundra said he wasn't present, either, but reported being with another student and witnessing a similar response from Cedar City police officers. Weideman said the incident had nothing to . do with race. “[Tuliapupu] was the only one who cared about race,” Weideman said. Skinner added, “No one alluded to race. I am married to an Ecuadorian, and I have lived in Africa for eight months. I think it’s ridiculous that he would accuse us of being racist.” ; Williams, who defended Tuliapupu on most other fronts, said he could not understand why his friend brought up the race issue. “There was nothing racial involved at all,” he said. Pietrzak was clear about his store’s policy: “Domino’s has no preference for any religion, race, gender, or creed. If anyone wants pizza, we'll take care of them like a king or queen.” Holm said it is difficult to tell which officers responded to the call that night. “A police report was not filled out on the incident,” Holm said. “I don’t know who was there. Sometimes troopers, deputies and other agencies [like the SUU department of public safety] help us by responding to calls. Anyone could have been there.” In his letter, Tuliapupu said “four patrol cars, one truck and two undercover cars” responded to the call, but Holm said he doubted that unmarked cars were on the scene. “We have only a few unmarked cars, and I know that [those officers] didn’t tespond to this particular call,” he said. Both sides agreed on one point: The entire incident could have been avoided. “Before anything had escalated, the issue could have been resolved in an easier manner,” Rosanna Tuliapupu said. “They could have pulled the [complaint] form out and handled it better. It could have been handled better, than by getting the police involved.” «a ks MR Weideman said it is unfortunate that the issue escalated to the point it did. “It could have been handled with a phone call,” he said. wmng Thurs ay, 7:30 p.m. SUU Ce 1Rt W I arch 14 LOOR: Students: $21 50 » General Public; VS TR H" Tickets g0 on sale Thursday, Feb _entrum Ticket Office |