Civil rights lawsuit alleges racial profiling, unauthorized photos at Dunbar Dollar General

A civil-rights complaint filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court accuses Dollar General employees at the Dunbar store of racial profiling and related wrongdoing. The suit, captioned Jazmen K. Harris v. Dolgencorp, LLC, carries case number CC-20-2026-C-110 and was filed Jan. 27, 2026.

The filing identifies Jazmen K. Harris as the plaintiff and Dolgencorp, LLC as the defendant. The available excerpt of the complaint is incomplete; the supplied material cuts off mid-sentence with the verbatim fragment “The complaint claims employees falsely a,” leaving the specific acts and claims unreported in the public excerpt. The story title accompanying the filing references unauthorized photos, but the truncated complaint text provided does not confirm whether unauthorized photographs are alleged. The full complaint and court docket will be necessary to establish the detailed factual allegations, causes of action, and damages sought.

The Dunbar filing arrives amid broader scrutiny of dollar-store practices in other jurisdictions. In Des Moines, the local civil and human rights commission reached a settlement with Family Dollar after accusations that employees racially profiled two Black customers. That settlement awarded $8,600 to one of the two women and imposed remedial measures on the store, including a requirement that the retailer implement an anti-discrimination policy prohibiting employees “from engaging in any discriminatory or harassing conduct toward any customer due to a customer's race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation and/or gender identification.” The commission withheld the name of the woman who settled to protect confidentiality, and the other woman is pursuing further action in state court.

Public reporting on the Des Moines matter said the two women alleged they had been prevented from leaving the store and that an employee had locked the door and searched their purses before letting them go. An employee involved later told reporters she had received threats and had quit her job after being reprimanded by a supervisor for the bag search; that employee’s name was withheld for safety. The commission required Family Dollar to develop training for employees and managers and to post a non-discrimination notice at the store.

For workers and managers, both matters underscore tensions between loss-prevention practices and civil-rights protections. Frontline employees who are asked to conduct customer stops, bag checks, or other interventions face safety risks and potential legal exposure; managers and corporate policy teams face liability and reputational risk when training and written rules are absent or unclear. Confidentiality and safety concerns for victims and employees also complicate internal responses and public disclosure.

The Dollar General complaint is now on the Kanawha County docket; obtaining the full filing and any corporate response will be key to clarifying whether the Dunbar allegations include unauthorized photos or other specific misconduct. For employees and human-resources teams, the cases signal a need to review and reinforce clear anti-discrimination policies, training, and procedures that protect both customers and staff.