White Mom Accused of Trafficking Biracial Daughter Sues Southwest: Based on a 'Racist Assumption’

Mary MacCarthy, who is White, was accused of trafficking her young biracial daughter during a 2021 Southwest flight

A White mother who was accused of trafficking her biracial daughter as the two were flying via Southwest in 2021 is suing the airlines over racial discrimination.

In a lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court, District of Colorado, dated Aug. 3, Mary MacCarthy and her daughter Moira, who was 10 at the time of the incident, were traveling from Los Angeles to Denver on Oct. 22, 2021, to attend the funeral of MacCarthy’s brother.

According to the suit, during the family’s flight, a Southwest employee notified Denver police to report MacCarthy on suspected child trafficking “for no reason other than the different color of her daughter’s skin from her own. There was no basis to believe that Ms. MacCarthy was trafficking her daughter and the only basis for the Southwest employee’s call was the belief that Ms. MacCarthy’s daughter could not possibly be her daughter because she is a biracial child,” per the filing.

The suit further added that Denver authorities confronted MacCarthy and her daughter at  Denver International Airport and stated that they were handed information that MacCarthy was suspected of child trafficking because she was White and her daughter was biracial.

Following questioning by authorities, MacCarthy was allowed to leave, “but not before this display of blatant racism by Southwest Airlines caused Ms. MacCarthy and her daughter extreme emotional distress,” per the document.

The filing further stated that the incident involving MacCarthy and her daughter is based on a “racist assumption about a mixed‐race family."

MacCarthy is seeking punitive and exemplary damages, per the suit.

Related: White Mom Says Southwest Airlines Employee Suspected Her of Trafficking 10-Year-Old Black Daughter

In a statement shared Monday with PEOPLE, David Lane, MacCarthy’s attorney, wrote: “In using racial profiling to cause the Denver police to stop innocent travelers, Southwest Airlines has attempted to address the serious crime of sex-trafficking through use of a stereotypical, easy formula.  Just as the police are constitutionally not permitted to stop-and-frisk young men of color based upon their race, corporate America is similarly not permitted to resort to such profiling in using law enforcement to stop and question racially diverse families simply based upon their divergent races, which is what Southwest did.  The lawsuit is designed to bring some accountability to the airline and cause them to re-examine their training and policies.”

When reached for comment, a representative from Southwest told PEOPLE in an email: “We don’t have anything to add right now on this pending litigation.”

In an interview with PEOPLE shortly after the 2021 incident occurred, MacCarthy, a single mother, said that she and her daughter were unable to find seats together on the flight from San Jose, California, which was their layover stop, to Denver. "I said to the flight attendants, 'We're traveling for a funeral, my daughter's just 10,'" MacCarthy recalled, who added that she was told by the attendants to find two open seats together, which she did.

After that, the flight for the mother and daughter, apparently, went smoothly. However, upon arrival at the Denver airport, MacCarthy recalled being met by a Southwest Airlines employee and two police officers on the jet bridge. She initially thought they were there to inform them that another family member had died.

However, according to MacCarthy, they told her: "'We're here to talk to you because you and your daughter were reported as having suspicious behavior.' At that point in my mind, it clicked that we had probably been profiled. I've been raising this girl for 10 years; she's my biological daughter, and I knew things like this could happen."

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Per footage recorded by MacCarthy, the employee told the mother, "The flight attendants were just concerned about the behavior when you boarded the aircraft," and that it was company policy to follow up on the claims.” Meanwhile, Moira could be heard in the video crying.

According to police reports, MacCarthy was suspected of human trafficking by the Southwest employee, who was notified by a flight attendant because the family boarded the flight at the last minute and asked passengers to swap seats. The employee also noted that MaCarthy and Moira didn’t speak during the flight and that Moira didn’t interact with the crew.

MacCarthy denied the claims and said that she was blindsided by the human trafficking allegation. At the time of her PEOPLE interview, she said she was seeking legal action.

"I want Southwest Airlines and the Denver police to be held accountable for what is undoubtedly a case of racial profiling involving a 10-year-old Black girl, who was already suffering the worst day in her life — a death in her family," MacCarthy said.

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