Lewis Keys, former senior director of optical services, sues Walmart in Kentucky

Lewis Keys, identified in the public docket summary as "the former senior director of optical services," filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against Walmart Inc. in Kentucky Circuit Court for Campbell County on March 4, 2026, alleging race discrimination, a hostile work environment and retaliatory termination after roughly a 20-year career with the company. The complaint, filed by The Scharfenberger Law Office, says Keys experienced racial slurs and other discriminatory treatment and reported that conduct to HR before being terminated in November 2024.

Court records for the filing appear under the case header 26-CI-00290 in a county case database, though an initial report listed the docket as 26‑CI‑0029, a discrepancy visible in the publicly available summaries. The Radar-style case entry lists the matter as Keys v. Walmart Inc., plaintiff counsel The Scharfenberger Law Office, and categorizes the filing with tags including Discrimination Claims, Employment Claims and Race Discrimination; the same entry also shows a case type label of Personal Injury, which conflicts with the employment-discrimination labels.

The law-summary text attached to the filing restates the core allegations: that Keys experienced racial slurs and discriminatory treatment, reported the conduct to HR and was subsequently terminated in November 2024. The sources provided do not include the full complaint, so the specific wording of alleged slurs, the names or titles of any alleged perpetrators, the dates of particular incidents, the legal statutes or counts pleaded, and the relief sought are not available in the public extracts supplied with the case header.

No defense counsel is named in the extracted court entry and no statement from Walmart appears in the supplied materials. The filing posture is limited to the initial complaint entry: March 4, 2026 as the date the action was filed and November 2024 as the month of termination, with Keys described as a long-tenured employee of approximately 20 years.

The case opens a local civil action in Campbell County that, if the complaint follows the summary language, centers on alleged retaliation after an internal HR report. Key factual and procedural items that will determine next steps for both parties are not yet in the public excerpts: the full complaint text, whether administrative charges preceded the lawsuit, any exhibits such as termination paperwork or HR correspondence, and whether Walmart has retained defense counsel or filed an answer. The Scharfenberger Law Office is listed as plaintiff counsel on the filing; the docket entries available publicly show the matter as 26-CI-00290 in the Campbell County court record, though the earlier 26‑CI‑0029 notation should be reconciled with the court index.