SC Man Who Enslaved, Abused Employee Owes Him $500K: Court

RICHMOND, VA — A white South Carolina restaurant manager who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for enslaving and abusing his Black employee has been ordered to pay him more than a half-million dollars in restitution, court documents released this week show.

Bobby Edwards, who managed the J&J Cafeteria in Conway, South Carolina, was initially ordered to pay the employee — referred to as “Jack” in court documents — close to $273,000 in unpaid wages and overtime compensation after Edwards pleaded guilty to forced labor.

Edwards was charged and sentenced in 2018 after he was accused of forcing Jack to work 100 hours per week for multiple years without pay, court documents say.

However, an appellate court judge in April ruled the restitution amount should have been double that in order to account for liquidated damages, according to the ruling. Edwards was ordered by a three-judge panel to pay Jack close to $546,000.

The Fair Labor Standards Act's liquidated damages provision states that if failing to pay a worker's wages on time is so detrimental to that worker's "minimum standard of living," they should be paid double that amount, CNN reported, citing a 1945 Supreme Court ruling.

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Jack, who has an intellectual disability, had started working at J&J Cafeteria in 1990, according to court documents. For the first 19 years he was employed there, the business was owned by different members of the Edwards family. During that time, Jack was paid for the hours he worked.

That changed in 2009 when Edwards became manager, court documents say.

Edwards moved Jack into an apartment attached to the restaurant and forced him to work from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday. Jack was never given a day off, according to court documents.

Edwards also kept Jack isolated from his family, threatened to have him arrested and verbally abused him.

Edwards’ control over Jack also included physical abuse. At times, Edwards would punch Jack, hit him with his belt and beat him with kitchen pans, court documents say.

On one occasion, Jack had failed to deliver fried chicken to the buffet as quickly as Edwards demanded. Court documents said Edwards then dipped metal tongs into hot grease and pressed them to Jack’s neck, resulting in a burn that fellow employees had to treat.

“I felt like I was in prison. Most of the time I felt unsafe, like Bobby could kill me if he wanted,” Jack told authorities. “I wanted to get out of that place so bad but couldn’t think about how I could without being hurt.”

Adult Protective Services in South Carolina took Jack into custody in October 2014 after an employee’s relative contacted authorities about Edwards’ abuse.