Jury to Carroll: No Discrimination at Buckhead Bar

A federal jury on Friday found that the Tavern at Phipps did not violate the civil rights of former NBA All Star and southwest Atlanta resident Joe Barry Carroll and attorney Joseph Shaw, according to a report this afternoon on HuffingtonPost.com.

The jury— evenly split by gender and composed of nine white and three black members—reached its verdict in less than 15 minutes of deliberation, according to the site.

Former NBA all-star Joe Barry Carroll and attorney Joseph Shaw were drinking at the tavern five years ago when they encountered the bar's unwritten policy that men be asked to give up seats for women in exchange for a free round of drinks, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story reported.

The men, both African-American, refused and were told to leave the restaurant, according to reports.

Carroll and Shaw said the bar used the policy to harass black patrons and keep the Tavern at Phipps and its patio predominantly white. But Greg Greenbaum, CEO of the Tavern Corp., contended the policy was strictly to curry favor with female patrons, who would attract more men and keep the bar tabs high.

The policy, he told the AJC, was created by a black bar manager who saw the opportunity in female shoppers burdened with bags.

The two men had asked the jury for more than $3 million in damages.

Jeffrey Bramlett, the attorney for Carroll and Shaw, said restaurant management was intent on keeping the clientele predominantly white and the bar stocked with "white men and well-endowed women."

"Southern hospitality did not apply equally to blacks and whites," Bramlett said in the HuffingtonPost.com story.

"The signal from the top was `I want a predominantly white place, it's a good business model and it's making me lots of money.'"

But Ernest Greer, a lawyer for the tavern, said it was Carroll and Shaw who injected race into the policy, which he said had been applied evenly at the restaurant, open for at least two decades.

“This incident didn't happen because they were black," Greer said in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "This incident happened because Mr. Carroll and Mr. Shaw wanted to be treated better than anyone else."

To read more about this case and to see the results of a Cascade Patch poll on the incident, see Ex-NBAer Tavern at Phipps Trial Continues Today. You also may cast your own vote in the poll on this page.