San Antonio: Billy Bobs Beds kicks out a disabled Vet, tells him to go Occupy Wall Street

A San Antonio businessman kicked a disabled war veteran and his service dog out of a mattress store, and employees told the vet to "Go occupy Wall Street," the man claims in court.

Adan Gallegos sued Billy Bob's Beds in San Antonio Federal Court.

Gallegos claims the store president, William Gholson, kicked him and his service dog Bootz out of the San Antonio store though Bootz was clearly identified as a service animal.

Gholson is not named as an individual defendant.

"Gholson persisted in spite of Bootz wearing an identifying service-dog vest and Mr. Gallegos verbally informing Gohlson that Bootz is a service animal," the complaint states.

"Store employees continued the harassment and ridicule after Mr. Gallegos left the building."

Gallegos claims that Gholson called the police on him, and that after he left the store, employees followed him and told him to remove his Wounded Warrior clothing and "go occupy Wall Street."

Gallegos served with the Army's 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery Regiment, "which was involved in the search for, and capture of, Saddam Hussein," according to the complaint.

He says he has been rated 70 percent disabled and has depression and severs post-traumatic stress disorder due to "intense combat" and "the explosion of an IED."

His dog Bootz helps him deal with his disabilities.

"The tasks performed by Bootz are directly related to Mr. Gallegos' disability and include monitoring Mr. Gallegos' behavior and alerting if Mr. Gallegos appears to be highly stressed or shows signs of a panic attack," the complaint states.

Bootz also wakes him up when he has a nightmare, reminds him to take his medication and warns him someone is coming up from behind him.

Gallegos claims he entered the store with a family member to pick up a previously purchased mattress. Bootz remained leashed and did not jump on any of the furniture.

"Gholson stated he did not care if the dog was a service animal," the complaint states. "Gholson indicated that Mr. Gallegos was in Gholson's place of business and no one could make him do anything in his own building."

Mr. Gholson and his employees honor the military service of Mr. Gallegos and all veterans and active duty personnel. Billy Bob (BB) regrets the way things occurred and the misunderstanding between Mr. Gallegos and BB.

It was a full year ago – October 2011 – that Mr. Gallegos came to BB’s with Bootz. That is when the events occurred. In the full year since then and up until today (October 23, 2012), BB heard nothing from any lawyers for Mr. Gallegos or from the government or from any other representative of Mr. Gallegos. This is unfortunate because there is no reason for these lawyers to have filed this federal court lawsuit, which they did on October 18, 2012, last Thursday.

BB – soon after this situation – changed his “No Pet” policy. BB sells mattresses; and pets in the store are a concern. BB has always allowed service dogs to come into the store when the dogs accompanied a customer with an obvious disability like blindness. Back at the time in October 2011, BB was not aware of the idea of service dogs for folks – like Mr. Gallegos – who did not have an apparent disability. There seem to be government rules and regulations that BB did not understand
at the time. BB’s current policy addresses this and all service dogs are allowed.

BB is a small business owner with his wife. They have 8 employees. In his lawsuit, Mr. Gallegos says that he wants to return to BB’s. Mr. Gallegos is welcomed with Bootz to come to BB’s. In order to resolve this, BB is happy to provide a new, free mattress to Mr. Gallegos. And – and this is serious – BB is also happy to provide a new free mattress to Bootz. Often, BB will cut down a mattress to size for a customer’s pet.

And BB continues to offer a military discount to all of our service men and women.

William A. Sherwood