Lawsuit claims Sheetz assistant manager wrongly fired

A Cheswick woman claimed in a lawsuit filed this week she was wrongfully fired last summer as an assistant manager of a Sheetz store after she refused to follow a company directive that initially ordered her to not attend a criminal court hearing to which she had been called to testify.

Samantha A. Slagle named Altoona-based Sheetz as the lone defendant in the two-count lawsuit filed in Westmoreland County.

“Sheetz discharged the plaintiff in violation of public policy because she refused to not attend a preliminary hearing for which she (had) been subpoenaed,” according to the lawsuit filed by Greensburg attorney Larry Kerr.

Sheetz officials did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the lawsuit, Slagle said she provided store security video to Plum police during an investigation into allegations that a customer at her store loitered and harassed female co-workers. Slagle said in the lawsuit she knew an arrest warrant had been issued and called police after she saw the same man at another Sheetz location in June. She used a cellphone to record the man’s capture and showed the video to one of her co-workers.

Slagle was issued a subpoena by Plum police to testify at a preliminary hearing Aug. 5. In the days that preceded the court appearance, she claimed she was questioned about her actions by a Sheetz human resources officer and ordered to not answer the subpoena as the company would attempt to send another employee in her place.

According to the lawsuit, Slagle eventually was permitted to attend the hearing but was fired hours after she returned home from court.

“Sheetz’s ostensible reasons for the plaintiff’s discharge were pretextual,” Kerr wrote in the lawsuit.

Slagle is seeking an unspecified amount in damages as well as compensation for lost wages, damage to her professional and personal reputations and emotional distress. She also is seeking to be reinstated to her position as an assistant manager.