This week for the first time I had the task of covering the McDonald’s hoax civil trial. For those of you that don’t know here is a thumbnail sketch of what happened. A man pretending to be a police officer calls the McDonald’s in Mt. Washington in Bullitt County. The assistant manager answers the phone. The caller tells her one of the teen employee stole some money and she needs to be the strip-searched. The assistant manager then calls her boyfriend to the restaurant and he talks to the caller. The fake cop tells him to spank the teen, Louise Ogborn, and then sexually assault her. Sounds crazy. But now that I have gone to the civil trial I have a better understanding of how this could have unfolded. Keep reading.

It all happened the evening of April 9, 2004. Louise had clocked out. She ordered a chicken sandwich and fries and was sitting down eating her meal. She was about to go home and then go to a party for a friend. One of her supervisors comes over to her table and asks her if she could work a little bit extra that evening because they were short staffed. Louise says “sure” let me finished eating and I will clock back in. Before she could do that the assistant manager, Donna Summers, takes that infamous phone call. Louise is told to go the office, she walks in and Summers is on the phone.

That’s when it all started. It began just like you think. Louise said she told Summers she didn’t steal any money and that this was ridiculous. Louise says she even asked to be taken to the police department. She says her requests were denied and at that point she became upset and started following the orders of the strip search. Before you pass judgment you have to understand the entire ordeal was 3 hours. Louise says at some point she just went into robotic mode and listened to the elders around her. It wasn’t like she was immediately strip-searched and the manger’s boyfriend came in and said, “perform a sex act on me.” The assault happened at the end of the ordeal. After hours of being in a tiny room, naked and confused.

The jury was able to see the un-edited surveillance tape of the incident. I was able to watch it with them. I thought as a journalist I needed to see how something like this could have happened. After I saw it I realized how cruel this prank-turned-assault really was. It may not make sense and it may be hard to comprehend but like the old saying goes – you never know what you’d do until you’re in that situation.