Former Nassau Golf Club Caddy Suing For Lewd, Racist Treatment

A former caddy at the Garden City Golf Club is suing his former employer and his former boss after he says a picture was posted to Facebook that showed his boss placing his penis on the face of the napping caddy.

The lawsuit was originally filed last October after the caddy, Robert Wiggins, quit his job from embarrassment. According to court papers, Wiggins was taking a nap while on an allowed break. While he was dozing, his manager, George Ouellette, allegedly unzipped his pants and placed his penis — or a realistic facsimile — on Wiggins's face while another person snapped a picture of it.

The photo was then allegedly posted to Facebook. When Wiggins learned of it, he said he was too embarrassed to return to work and was forced to quit his job. Wiggins had been a caddy at the Golf Club for 20 years.

"Disrespect, pride gone," Wiggins told News 12. "I was just hurt, I was really hurt."

The lawsuit alleges that, more than just an indecent act, the photo was meant as a racist attack against Wiggins, who is black.

"The photograph is extremely evocative of similar images from the antebellum south, in which white slave owners asserted their ownership over their black slaves through sexual imagery," the lawsuit reads. "This depiction was willfully intended to be reminiscent of this form of race relations, with the black man being subservient and in a position of slavery to the white owner."

The Garden City Golf Club, which was founded in 1899, has been vigorously fighting the lawsuit.

"As these allegations are a matter of civil legal action, the club must limit its comments," the club said in a statement through its public relations firm. "However, there are inaccuracies in the complaint which the club will vigorously defend. We believe that this alleged misconduct does not reflect any pattern of behavior among persons associated with the club."

Wiggins is seeking $5 million in damages from the golf club in compensation for his lost work as well as a punitive ruling against Ouellette.

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