Officer waited hours before getting Starbucks burn treated
May 7, 2015, 9:42 AM
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — After severely burning himself with a free cup of Starbucks coffee, a North Carolina police officer suing the coffee chain says he waited hours and got photos before seeking medical care.
Raleigh police officer Matthew Kohr told jurors Wednesday he drove home to have the injury photographed before he went to an urgent care facility, the News & Observer reports (http://bit.ly/1Rgsr7l).
Kohr testified that he left Starbucks in his police car, got his truck from the police garage, drove home and had his wife take pictures of the third-degree burns on his inner thigh.
Not until more than two hours after the incident did Kohr go to an urgent care center, Starbucks attorney Tricia Derr emphasized.
“You didn’t go the emergency room,” Derr said. “You didn’t go to urgent care. You went to get your truck.”
Kohr says the lid popped off his coffee — free to officers in uniform — and the cup collapsed in his lap during the 2012 incident. He said he was not thinking about pursuing legal action at the time.
“Lawsuit never crossed my mind that day,” he said. “Did it later? Yes.”
Kohr claims the incident caused such severe stress it activated his Crohn’s disease, which required surgery to remove part of his intestine.
An attorney representing Starbucks argued in her opening statement Tuesday that Kohr was negligent, and said his pre-existing condition caused his problems.
Kohr is suing the coffee chain for between $50,000 and $750,000.
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Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com
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