Man suing CMPD, Optimist Hall after he alleges they told him to leave over service dog
A Charlotte man alleges a pair of local businesses and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police discriminated against him for using a service animal.
Benjamin Bowman filed his case Wednesday in federal court against CMPD and The Providence Group, the real estate company behind Optimist Hall, over an alleged incident in 2022.
Bowman says a manager asked him to provide proof of his service dog’s credentials in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The manager called police and accused Bowman of being disruptive, and officers asked him to leave the business in violation of civil rights protections, the suit says.
The complaint alleges CMPD further violated the ADA by not allowing Bowman to enter police headquarters with his service dog to file a report about the Optimist Hall incident the following day. The suit also names the city of Charlotte and the Optimist Hall manager as defendants.
“When law enforcement and corporate entities collude to violate fundamental civil rights, they do not merely err — they abdicate their duty,” said Bowman, who is representing himself, in the complaint.
Bowman says the incident negatively impacted his mental and physical health. He’s seeking damages, coverage of his legal fees and court-mandated ADA training and reforms within CMPD and The Providence Group.
He’s also suing Summit Coffee over a similar incident in 2024.
CMPD, a spokesperson for Optimist Hall and Summit Coffee CEO and owner Brian Helfrich all declined to comment on the lawsuits.
Service animal law in North Carolina
Under the ADA, service animals aren’t required to wear a vest or other ID, according to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Businesses can ask just two questions of people with service dogs under the law:
Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?
Businesses can’t ask for documentation showing the animal is registered, licensed or certified as a service animal, the ADA says. They also can’t ask for details about the person’s disability or for the animal to demonstrate its training.
North Carolina law provides similar state-level protections, according to attorney Chris Hodgson of the legal advocacy group Disability Rights North Carolina.
“There’s no requirement to have some sort of license or certification to use a service animal, no requirement to have a distinctive harness,” said Hodgson, whose organization isn’t involved in Bowman’s cases but has brought similar suits.
Service dogs can be used for a variety of tasks, from guiding people or are deaf or blind to alerting people with mental health conditions of the onset of a panic attack, Hodgson added.
“It’s really unlimited what the task could be ... It just has to ensure the task, the work are meant to benefit a person with a disability,” he said.
Despite legal protections, experiences such as Bowman’s with businesses and law enforcement are “very common” in North Carolina, Hodgson said.
“There’s a good deal of misunderstanding,” he said.
‘Systematic failures’
Bowman says his issues with discrimination began just days after he relocated to Charlotte in 2022 for a new job.
He visited Optimist Hall that January with his then-service dog, a German shepherd named Beau, and was working on his laptop at a table when staff began to ask him for proof the dog was a service animal in violation of the ADA, the suit claims. Beau, who has since died, was trained to remind Bowman to take his medication.
After Bowman told a manager she couldn’t ask those questions and sent an email to Providence Group management about the incident, Bowman alleges the manager called police.
In a video taken by Bowman that day and shared with the Observer, a uniformed officer said he understood Bowman needed his service dog but the manager said they have to leave. When Bowman replied, “that’s illegal,” another officer said Bowman was being asked to leave because he “caused a disturbance” — not the service animal. The first officer said the manager initially called CMPD about a dog but then told officers Bowman was creating a disturbance.
When Bowman offered to show information on the ADA’s service animal guidelines, a third officer says the manager of a “private property” can have him removed. Bowman told the Observer multiple patrons came to his defense.
Bowman’s suit also claims he faced discrimination when he tried to visit a CMPD station the following day to file a report about what happened at Optimist Hall.
In another video shared with the Observer, an officer told Bowman he can’t come in without proof Beau was a service animal.
Bowman asks to speak with a supervisor, who asks for “documentation” Beau is a service animal and offers to assist him outside. Bowman continues to ask about department policy, and the supervisor then gets another employee who says he must register his dog as a service animal in North Carolina.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services offers “voluntary” registration of service animals, according to its website, but says “service animal registration is not required under the ADA.”
Bowman’s suit alleges “systematic failures” by Optimist Hall’s ownership and CMPD that led to the discrimination.
His suit against Summit Coffee, filed in December, alleges a similar incident at the Davidson-based chain’s Plaza Midwood location earlier in 2024.
Summit leadership apologized to Bowman when he reported the incident but was unresponsive when he requested they take “corrective action” to prevent future issues with service animals, the suit alleges.
‘If not me, who?’
Bowman’s mental and physical health have deteriorated since the incidents, he says. Stress from discrimination can lead to anxiety, depression, accelerated aging and other health issues, according to research by the American Psychological Association, federal Department of Health and Human Services and University of Michigan.
Bowman told the Observer he was moved to take legal action after learning more about the health impacts of discrimination and seeing news reports of others filing similar cases.
“If not me, who?” he said.
Bowman’s suit calls for CMPD to “implement mandatory ADA training and procedural reforms” and for The Providence Group to “employ an ADA compliance officer and establish a corrective action framework.” He’s also seeking $10 million in damages, saying his experience led to lost wages, medical costs, diminished earning capacity, emotional distress and public humiliation.
The suit against Summit also requests damages and the implementation of ADA training by the company.
Hodgson noted his organization settled a similar case against the Winston-Salem Police Department in 2022 when the city of Winston-Salem agreed to new training for police officers on the ADA and service animals.
This story was originally published January 21, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
