Excerpt:
A civil rights lawsuit filed last month by seven Muslim women claiming they were targeted and humiliated when forced to leave Urth Caffe by management is fraudulent, the owner of the Laguna Beach restaurant said in a counter-suit filed Wednesday.
"It is nothing short of an abuse of process to extort public apologies and other accommodations from my client, Urth Caffe," said David Yerushalmi, co-founder and senior counsel for American Freedom Law Center, a national public interest law firm.
The cross-complaint filed in Orange County Superior Court alleges the lawsuit by the women is an abuse of process. The counter-suit accuses the women of trespassing at the cafe after being asked to leave.