Last year, Amber Lynn Gilles posted a picture of the barista, Lenin Guitierrez, on Facebook and accused him of discrimination for refusing to serve her at the San Diego Starbucks.
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"Meet lenen from Starbucks who refused to serve me cause I'm not wearing a mask. Next time I will wait for cops and bring a medical exemption," Gilles' post read.
Matt Cowan saw the post, felt bad for Lenin and set up a GoFundMe page for him, which ended up generating more than $100,000 in donations for the young barista.
Starbucks customer who wouldn't wear mask wants half of $100K donated to San Diego barista
Starbucks customer who wouldn't wear mask wants half of $100K donated to San Diego barista
It's that GoFundMe page which is at the center of a new lawsuit filed by Gilles against Cowan and his company, alleging he used her pictures to make a profit.
"There is an invasion of privacy aspect here as well and it's defamatory and money was raised by him," said Michael Harrington, Gilles' attorney.
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Cowan said everything was done in a "philanthropic sense," adding that he used publicly available information to set up the GoFundMe page.
The suit alleges that Gilles received death threats. Now, she wants a trial and money for lost work, damages and lawyer fees.
Both parties have started GoFundMe pages for their defense. As of Thursday afternoon, Cowan had raised over $16,000, while Gilles had raised about $6,000.