A woman who got called 'Central Park Karen' lost an appeal in a lawsuit about her finance job
Melody Cooper/Twitter
- A woman who got called "Central Park Karen" lost her appeal against unfair dismissal.
- Amy Cooper was fired by Franklin Templeton after a confrontation with a Black man in Central Park.
- She argued she'd been the victim of employment discrimination and defamation.
The woman labelled "Central Park Karen" after a confrontation with a Black man lost an appeal against the dismissal of a lawsuit that named her former employer.
In September Amy Cooper lost a wrongful termination lawsuit she lodged after being fired for confronting a birdwatcher Christian Cooper (no relation) in New York's Central Park in May 2020.
She lost an appeal against that ruling in a Manhattan court 3-0, according to court documents seen by Insider.
Christian Cooper had asked the woman to put her dog on a leash as required in that part of the park.
In a video he posted on social media, Amy Cooper appeared to call the police and could be heard saying an African-American man was "threatening me and my dog" even though he did not approach her, per NPR.
The incident gained international attention, coming around the same time as the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.
"Karen" is a term used to describe a white person, often a woman, who "calls police to report a Black or brown person engaged in mundane activities," per NPR.
A charge of false reporting against Amy Cooper following the incident was dismissed after she went to racial bias therapy.
However, her employer Franklin Templeton fired Cooper a day after the video went viral, tweeting: "We do not tolerate racism of any kind."
She was an investment portfolio manager – a role with a salary in six figures, according to Glassdoor data.
In a lawsuit filed in 2021 against Franklin Templeton, Cooper argued that she was fired on the basis of employment discrimination, claiming her employers didn't appropriately review the incident, as well as defamation for being portrayed as a racist. She lost the suit.
In their ruling rejecting her later appeal, the judges again dismissed these claims, saying they did not meet the threshold for defamation.
Amy Cooper apologized at the time and said she was "not a racist," per CNN.
Christian Cooper has made a show for National Geographic about birdwatching that airs on June 17.
Franklin Templeton and a lawyer for Amy Cooper didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.