Pimp convicted of stomping customer sues Nike over lack of warning label on shoes
Disruptive in court when he was convicted and sentenced last year for robbery and violent crimes against a prostitute and a customer who tried to avoid paying her, a 26-year-old former pimp has now found a way to maintain a high profile as he serves a 100-year prison sentence in the Portland, Ore., case.
Convicted of stomping a customer in the face, Sirgiorgio Sanford Clardy has now sued the manufacturer of the athletic shoes he wore at the time, Nike, for failing to warn him that the footwear could constitute a dangerous weapon, the Oregonian reports.
“Under product liability there is a certain standard of care that is required to be upheld by potentially dangerous product,” Clardy wrote in the pro se complaint he filed last week in Multnomah Circuit Court in Portland. “Due to the fact that these defendants named in this tort claim failed to warn of risk or to provide an adequate warning or instruction, it has caused personal injury in the likes of mental suffering.”
The suit seeks a court order requiring Nike to put warning labels on all “potentially dangerous Nike and Jordan merchandise” as well as $100 million in damages.
The newspaper article didn’t include any comment from Nike, which had not yet been served with the complaint at that point.
A photo of Clardy when he was sentenced last year for robbery, second-degree assault and compelling prostitution shows him sitting alone at the defense table, strapped to a restraining wheelchair. He was also wearing a mesh hood to restrict his spitting, according to an earlier Oregonian article.
It says nine deputies were at the sentencing for security reasons and Clardy was alone at the defense table because a judge had ruled it was not safe for a lawyer to sit beside him. Although Clardy was required to defend himself, a lawyer was appointed by the court as standby counsel to advise him … from a safe distance on the sidelines.
That lawyer, Jonathan Sarre, said a day before Clardy’s sentencing that he wanted to step down but was persuaded by the judge to stay on the case for a few more days.
”It’s not worth it to put my safety at risk, for what they’re paying me to do this,” Sarre told the court after an expletive-filled tirade by Clardy.
