September 12, 2022

PRESS RELEASE
Black Southern Air Employee Called N-Word,
Threatened with Lynching at Work;
Southern Air Caught in Lies in Court Filings

Strelka Employment Law, the state’s leading filer of discrimination lawsuits,

represents Adrian O’Neal Mitchell in a lawsuit for racial discrimination, retaliation,
wrongful termination, and suffering through a racially-charged hostile work environment
while employed with Southern Air, Inc in Lynchburg, Virginia. The lawsuit was filed in
Lynchburg City Circuit Court, Case No. CL22000552-00. Within his suit, Mr. Mitchell
alleges that while employed at Southern Air as a plumbing apprentice, employees
including a supervisor referred to Mr. Mitchell, who is black, as a “nigger”, “yard ape”,
“coon”, and other racially discriminatory epithets. Mr. Mitchell also claims that Southern
Air employee Tim Goodman threatened to lynch Mr. Mitchell by “hunt[ing] him down”
and shooting Mr. Mitchell “in the head”. Mr. Mitchell is seeking five million dollars
($5,000,000.00) in part due to the conduct of Southern Air personnel.

After the lawsuit was filed, Southern Air filed an Answer in the circuit court stating
multiple false assertions. These assertions are quickly disproved by review of the text
messages exchanged with Southern Air employees that Mr. Mitchell was savvy enough to
retain for his legal team. As an example, within Paragraph 15 of the Answer, Southern Air
stated the following:
 This is a lie. The following are text messages between Mr. Mitchell (blue) and
Southern Air Project Manager Kevin Blankenship (gray).

Not only did Mr. Mitchell indicate to Mr. Blankenship that his life had been
threatened at the workplace by Tim Goodman, but he had also informed Mr. Blankenship
that he previously informed Southern Air supervisor Steve Cundiff of the murder threat
the day that it occurred.

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 Southern Air’s lies continue. In Paragraph 17 of the Answer, Southern Air
represented to the court:

As provided in texts to Southern Air Project Manager Blankenship, Mr. Mitchell

clearly indicated that his life had been “threatened” “twice” and that a Southern Air
employee had threatened to “hit” Mr. Mitchell “with a piece of pipe”. In fact, despite these
essentially criminal acts, Mr. Blankenship intended work to simply continue unabated:

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 Sierria Phillips, Director of Personnel Development at Southern Air was also
informed of the death threats and bodily harm threats made to Mr. Mitchell. The
following are excerpts from her text messages (gray) with Mr. Mitchell (blue):

Mr. Mitchell possesses additional text messages not included here. Through
counsel, Mr. Mitchell intends to use these text messages with other significant evidence
he possesses to prove that he was subjected to a racist and illegal working environment at
Southern Air.

Southern Air is headquartered at 2655 Lakeside Drive, Lynchburg, Virginia 24501;

Phone: 434-385-1200. Southern Air is represented by attorneys Vijay Mago and
Katherine Rockwell of O’Hagan Meyer, PLLC in Richmond, Virginia.

For more information related to this case including the filed pleadings from both
parties, please contact attorney Tommy Strelka (thomas@strelkalaw.com)

Sincerely,

Tommy Strelka

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