Man Awarded $1.5M for Debt Collectors' Racist Calls

A jury has awarded a Texas man $1.5 million in his lawsuit over a series of racist and profane voicemails allegedly left by insistent debt collectors. The man, 26-year-old Allen Jones, says employees of Advanced Call Center Technologies harassed him with ever more aggressive calls, using racially charged language. “Go pick some motherf---ing cotton fields!” a caller suggested in one tape provided by Jones' lawyers.

Jones says he had already paid off the $81 credit card debt the collectors were calling about, but they continued to call, sometimes as early as 6:30am or as late as 11pm. ACT's lawyers agreed that the calls were “indefensible,” but argued that they “must have been some sort of personal attack unrelated to the business.” The two employees named in the lawsuit no longer work for the call center, ABC News reports. (More racism stories.)