International- Amy Cooper sued Franklin Templeton in May 2021 after the company fired her over her viral Central Park incident.
- Cooper said the company engaged in race and gender discrimination in terminating her days after she called 911 on Black man.
The woman dubbed "Central Park Karen" lost a lawsuit against her former employer claiming unjust termination and defamation, according to a ruling issued on Wednesday.
Amy Cooper sued Franklin Templeton in May 2021 after the investment firm fired her over a 2020 incident in which Cooper called 911 on Christian Cooper, a Black man bird watching in New York City's Central Park.
A 17-page ruling rejecting Cooper's claims was handed down on Wednesday by US District Judge Ronnie Abrams, who said her evidence against Franklin Templeton "didn't meet the threshold for defamation," CBS News reported.
In the complaint, Cooper claimed her former employer engaged in racism, sexism, and "caused her such severe emotional distress that she was suicidal."
She further alleged that the company treated her differently than three male employees accused of varying forms of misconduct, including insider trading and domestic violence.
In her ruling, Judge Abrams wrote that Cooper "cannot plausibly allege that she was subjected to a 'company-wide double standard' merely by identifying three male comparators who engaged in some — other — form of misconduct, but were not similarly fired."
In the suit, Cooper also cited a specific tweet posted by Franklin Templeton a day after the incident took place that stated "we do not tolerate racism" as defamatory, which Abrams rejected.
Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson stood by the company's decision in July 2021, and they moved to have Cooper's lawsuit thrown out a month later.
"We felt and we feel confident in the due diligence we did in the end — the process to make our evaluations," Johnson told Yahoo Finance.
The viral encounter occurred May 25, 2020 when Cooper recorded Amy Cooper calling the police during an argument in Central Park.
In the video, Cooper is heard claiming there was an "African American man threatening (her) life". After the video received millions of views online, Cooper issued an apology and was fired days after the incident.
Franklin Templeton expressed the firm's satisfaction with the ruling in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
"We are pleased that the court has dismissed the lawsuit. We continue to believe the company responded appropriately," it read.