Scott Ostrom feels like he got the shaft. Twice.
First, the former Rainbow Foods manager was stabbed in the chest by an irate customer in a debit card dispute. That man, Russell Terry Johnson, 68, was sentenced today to three years in prison.
Then the company where Ostrom had worked for 12 years fired him.
The company alleged “job abandonment,” Ostrom said. He believes it was because he had to take breaks during his shifts to cope with his post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
“I worked hard for the company,” Ostrom said after the sentencing hearing in Ramsey County District Court. “I guess I was just another number to them.”
Vivian King, director of public affairs for Roundy’s Supermarkets, which owns Rainbow, said the facts as Ostrom described them are “not the facts that I have.” She said she could not elaborate because the issue involved personnel.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said he planned to write a letter to the CEO of Milwaukee-based Roundy’s asking them to “reconsider their decision” to fire Ostrom.
Choi said he was “very moved” by Ostrom’s victim impact statement, which Choi read Tuesday. He said he also met with Ostrom.
“What strikes me about Mr. Ostrom is that this is very much a common theme among crime victims,” Choi said. After the traumatic event, the victim often suffers physical, financial and emotional after-effects.
“I think that our community needs to do better to deal with the victims of crime and deal with the issues that they’re going to be facing,” Choi said.
Ostrom, 49, of North Branch, sat in the front row of the courtroom gallery as Judge Gary Bastian sentenced Johnson.
Johnson was convicted July 21 of second-degree assault.
According to testimony at trial, Johnson became upset May 9 when he tried to use the self-checkout lane at the 1566 W. University Ave. store in St. Paul. He asked to speak to a manager, and Ostrom responded.
He told Johnson that he had entered an invalid PIN number for his debit card. Ostrom also said that Johnson’s account had not been charged for his three items.
Johnson wanted Ostrom to call the bank and confirm his balance. Ostrom said he didn’t have authority to get that information. Johnson became increasingly belligerent and said he would “take it out on” Ostrom or the store.
As Ostrom tried to lead Johnson out of the store, Johnson turned around and stabbed him in the area of his breast pocket. A security guard then tackled Johnson and, after a struggle, wrested the knife from his hand.
Ostrom could have suffered a more serious injury, but a small notebook in his breast pocket and his plastic name badge partially blocked the knife, according to trial testimony.
Prosecutor Janice Barker read Ostrom’s statement during the sentencing hearing.
The stabbing had “altered my life in a huge way,” Ostrom said in the statement. He found it difficult to work in the same Midway-area store, but the company refused to relocate him, he said. So he would leave the floor or go outside for breaks, trying to quell his anxiety.
Anytime he heard someone begin to raise their voice, Ostrom said, it brought back the trauma of the attack.
Asked later if he was offered a different position in the company that would not involve dealing with customers, he said no.
He was fired in July, “one week after the (Johnson) trial ended,” Ostrom said.
“It’s the first time in my life I’ve been out of work,” said the father of two sons in college. “I’ve always been a good provider for my family.”
After Roundy’s fired him, the company contested his unemployment claim.
Ostrom won that battle. An Aug. 24 letter from the state Department of Employment and Economic Development said that the company claimed employment misconduct on the basis of “absenteeism or tardiness.”
According to the law, the letter said, “It might not be employment misconduct if recent absences or tardiness were unavoidable, or due to illness, or if the applicant was unaware that the absences or tardiness seriously violated the employer’s standards or expectations.
“The applicant was not excessively absent from work or late to work,” the letter said. “The applicant’s actions were not employment misconduct.”
Choi said he didn’t know all the facts of Ostrom’s case. “But it just strikes me that a good corporate citizen-employer would have acted differently, and I hope that they would reconsider their decision.”
Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522.
