DANVERS, Mass. — An Everett mother says she’s pressing charges against a Danvers farm and their employee after being racially profiled during an apple-picking visit.
Nicole Pepin said she visited Connor’s Farm with her sister, her friend, and their children.
As the group left with apple bags, they claimed a female employee asked to check their strollers covered in their own jackets.
Pepin said no white families had their strollers checked. When her sister declined to have her stroller checked, the female employee allegedly called over a male employee of the farm.
Pepin explained, “He said, ‘I need to check your stroller. You guys are stealing apples.’”
When the group once again denied the allegations, Pepin claimed the male employee tried to stop them from leaving.
“He put his foot in front of the stroller trying to block us,” she added. “[He] pulled my stroller, pulled my arm and my sister screamed at him, said, ‘Don’t touch my baby.’”
Pepin said she blocked the employee from the rest of the group who was putting the kids in the car.
A Danvers police report claims the two were “chest to chest” during this altercation, and filming one another.
Pepin explained, “Once I said you’re racist, that’s when he snatched the phone out of my hand, slapped the phone down, and pushed me… I started hitting him back.”
The report claims the two were separated by a second Connor’s Farm employee. Police were able to get statements from both sides.
Pepin told Boston 25 Saturday she’ll be in court on November 8th, pressing assault and battery charges against the employee, and seeking discrimination charges against the farm.
She finished, “We spent a lot of money there to be treated the way we were treated.”
Boston 25 reached out to Connor’s farm throughout the week and have yet to hear back.
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