JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Two former teenage employees at a Jacksonville Zaxby's filed a lawsuit in Duval County Court Tuesday, accusing the fast-food chain of negligence for hiring registered sex offenders to manage its store. The lawsuit is also filed against one of the store managers, who is accused of following and recording female employees in the bathroom.
According to the lawsuit, the teens were allegedly physically assaulted and sexually harassed by Andre Clements Jr., 41, the store manager, who is a registered sex offender with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The suit states that on Aug. 20, female employees caught Clements following and recording them in the women's restroom. Clements was arrested and a criminal investigation into the incident is ongoing, the lawsuit said.
At the time, at least 10 teenage girls were employed at the Zaxby's on Airport Road when Clements was store manager.
Law firm Morgan & Morgan filed the lawsuit against the Jacksonville Zaxby's and Clements on behalf of the teenage employees, who are sisters and were 16 years old and 18 years old at the time they were employed at the fast-food chain.
The sisters were employed at the store from May 2023 to August 2023, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also outlines other behaviors by Clements that violated the rights of his female staff. This includes taking employees' cell phones and forcing them to enter their passcodes to give him access to the girls' phones, and "would often disappear with the phone for up to 30 minutes."
"It is believed that Clements would review the private messages and pictures and/or videos on the females' phones," the lawsuit states.
Clements is also accused of inappropriately touching the female employees.
These instances include adjusting name tags near girls' breasts, regularly touching their upper legs while working the drive-thru, and "forcibly" hugging female employees, according to the lawsuit.
In 2021, Clements was convicted in Broward County on charges of lewd and lascivious exhibition of a victim under the age of 16 and has been a registered sex offender since.
In addition to Clements, the complaint names Zaxby's assistant store manager, Delbert Mitchell, 40, who is also a registered sex offender, and began working at Zaxby's as part of a "prison work release program," the lawsuit states.
In 2017, Mitchell was convicted of four counts of sex crimes, including lewd and lascivious sexual battery and molestation of a victim between 12 to 15 years old.
Mitchell remained employed at Zaxby's months after Clements was arrested and fired, the lawsuit states.
"This meant that any young females, including minors, who had continued working at the Zaxby's were required to continue working with a registered sex offender," the lawsuit argued.
Attorney Tad Delegal, who is not associated with this lawsuit, says under Florida law an employer is not required to investigate someone's criminal background before hiring.
"There are there are jobs in which it's not specifically required for your criminal history to be disclosed. Frankly, sometimes that's a good thing. You want to have certain persons who may have been punished criminally, to still have an opportunity to work and to provide for their families," Attorney Tad Delegal said. "If Zaxby's had a reason to realize the danger to the employees, then Zaxby's can be held liable for failing to properly supervise, negligently hiring, or negligent repeatedly retaining the employees who caused the harm."
Due to Mitchell's continued employment at the store, the sisters behind the lawsuit "had no option but to resign," the lawsuit argues. Their last day at the store was Aug. 22, two days after Clements was arrested.
The lawsuit argues Zaxby's was aware of the men's criminal convictions before they were hired, and the chain's failure to supervise its employees led to a work environment that subjected its workers to "unlawful, severe, and traumatizing conduct."
"The Florida Law has not specifically held that employment of minors creates and enhance duty under this circumstance. But, a court could find that when an employer is hiring and supervising minors, there is an enhanced duty with regard to this kind of behavior," Delegal said.
In a statement to First Coast News, a spokesperson of S&R Foods of North Jacksonville said: "We at S&R Foods of North Jacksonville, Inc. care about the safety and well-being of all our employees, and we take these allegations very seriously. We are aware of the lawsuit, and the manager named in it is no longer employed at our location. At the moment, we are not able to comment further on this ongoing legal matter."
The lawsuit argues the teens suffered injuries including mental anguish, medical treatment, and "loss of enjoyment of life," and experienced permanent losses as a result of the alleged harassment.
"Zaxby's hiring of Clements and Mitchell and continued employment of Mitchell after discovering his prior convictions, and with knowledge of his inappropriate conduct towards young females, shows a callous disregard for the safety and welfare of its female employees," the lawsuit states.
The plaintiffs are seeking more than $50,000 in damages along with a jury trial.