Judge squashes restaurant roach suit

HOUMA -- District Judge Randy Bethancourt made the decision Wednesday, following the conclusion of a one-day bench trial last month.

Gail Pitre, of Chackbay, who filed the suit, claims in court papers she ate at Dragon Garden, 6653 W. Park Ave., in May 2007 and found two roaches in her takeout cup of ice tea. Pitre claimed she found the roaches as she ate ice from the cup after she left the restaurant.

Finding them caused Pitre to “violently vomit, seize, cry and experience severe respiratory malfunction,” according to court papers. She claimed she had lasting mental distress.

Bethancourt said Pitre did not prove her claim. Among reasons for his decision was her failure to produce witnesses who ate with her or a receipt for her meal. Pitre also failed to call the restaurant after allegedly finding the insects, Bethancourt said.

Michael Billiot, Pitre’s attorney, disagreed with the decision.

Billiot argued witnesses corroborated Pitre’s claims. Among them were Pitre, mental health professionals and Elizabeth Cooper, a former co-worker who testified to the “violent reaction” Pitre had to the roaches, court papers say.

The defense presented no evidence during the Oct. 21 trial. Defense attorney Glenn Adams could not be reached for comment.

Billiot said restaurants are obligated to follow standards for food preparation.

“We want to heighten (that obligation), not lessen it,” he said. “That’s what the law is supposed to do.”

Billiot says Pitre filed a complaint with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals’ Office of Public Health immediately after finding the roaches.

Bethancourt’s decision sets a dangerous precedent because “somebody who doesn’t call the restaurant, their credibility is subject to attack,” Billiot said.

The restaurant’s owner, Jin Rong Zeng, said published reports of Pitre’s lawsuit damaged business.

“My food is good, my service is good,” he said. “We try to keep up everything good.”

Zeng also owns the new Ichiban restaurant on Martin Luther King Boulevard. Dragon Garden has been open for 11 years and had never been sued prior to Pitre’s lawsuit, according to Tom Campo, a Houma accountant who acted as a spokesman for Zeng.

Pitre insists her story is true and denies she was trying to “break” the business by seeking money through a lawsuit. She brought it to court on principle, she said, and is still cautious when eating at restaurants.

“It’s frustrating and it’s always in the back of my mind,” she said. Pitre said she has not decided whether she’ll file for an appeal.

According to the Terrebonne division of the state Office of Public Health, the most recent inspection of the restaurant, Sept. 15, found no “roach activity.”

The inspection followed a previous visit on Aug. 20, when the restaurant was cited for roaches. An inspector recommended that the restaurant increase the frequency of visits from the pest-control company.

The next inspection on Sept. 8 found roaches in the restaurant but noted none of them were alive, records say.

Pitre filed her complaint with the Office of Public Health in June 2007, according to the records. An inspector found “a few dead roaches” and a live one. It noted the restaurant had contracted a pest-control company. The complaint was barred from the trial after Adams, the defense lawyer, objected. Adams said the report should not be admitted as evidence because the inspector who wrote it was not in court to authenticate the document, court papers say. Bethancourt sustained the objection.