The owners of a Rapid City hotel are facing a shareholder lawsuit over a social media post by one of them that promised to ban Native Americans from the property.
Judson Uhre is the son of Connie Uhre, who made the media post, and he’s suing her, his brothers Nick and Chad, and the Retsel Corporation, the family company that operates the Grand Gateway Hotel.
In his suit, Judson Uhre alleges the social media post is a breach of fiduciary duty, shareholder oppression, and interference in the hotel’s operation.
Connie Uhre made her post in the wake of a fatal shooting at the Gateway that involved two Native Americans. That led to protests and the hotel’s closure for about a month.
After it reopened, Uhre was arrested May 31 for allegedly spraying a cleaning product at demonstrators outside the hotel. The demonstrators were members of the NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led activist organization.
Her son’s lawsuit says she “had a duty of care to ensure that she conducts herself in a manner not prejudicial to the business of the corporation,” but didn’t.
The suit says “she went ahead and made a racially charged rant which was posted on a website with wide coverage and this led to financial loss of clients for the hotel as well as the damage to the hotel’s reputation.”
Judson Uhre’s filing seeks any and all damages due as a result of his family’s actions.