Opinion ID: 770251
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mary Anne Ende

Text: 18 First to testify was Ms. Ende, a file clerk and EDI Representative at BIC who reported to Beck after the CSD merger. Ms. Ende is white. She testified that Beck exhibited favoritism toward employees who had worked in customer service pre-merger and generally treated employees from the old OP Department like stepchildren. All OP employees were white except Hester. Ende testified that Beck would walk right by and not even acknowledge [Ende], that Beck gave Ende the same cold glare Ende had seen Beck give Hester, that Beck's treatment forced Ende to resign, and that Ende told BIC's Human Resource Manager that Beck pinned me against the wall to quit that company, and that's what I did. Ende, who observed the level of interaction between Beck and the two group leaders, testified that Beck spent less time in Hester's cubicle than he did in the cubicle of Joanne Passeretti--who is white and came from the department Beck allegedly favored--from which Ende deduced that Beck gave Parsseretti more guidance than she gave Hester. Ende further testified that while everyone complained about Beck, she thought the complaints voiced by Hester and other black employees were a lot worse. When plaintiff's counsel asked Ende to say whether Beck's treatment of Hester was attributable to Hester's race, Ende answered--over BIC's objection--that must have had something to do with it. On cross, Ende said she did not know whether Hester was meeting Beck's expectations of her as group leader, or whether customers and manufacturing representatives had complained to Beck (and others) about Hester's handling of their accounts. 19