FRANKLIN, Tenn., Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Controversy is growing over a Tennessee Red Lobster receipt that had a racial slur written on it, a picture of which went viral on Facebook.
Toni Christina Jenkins, an employee at a Red Lobster store in Franklin, Tenn., posted a picture to Facebook of a receipt for $44.53 that was left on a table she was serving. The tip line said "NONE" and a racial epithet was scrawled on the line for the total.
The incident prompted an online charity, Tips for Toni, started by Matthew Hanson, founder of AddictingInfo.org. Hanson presented Jenkins with a check on Sept. 30 for $10,719 collected from more than 1,000 donors online. Jenkins said she had no idea the collection was being taken. She told The (Nashville) Tennessean she gave some of the money to family and used the rest to buy a car.
The story doesn't end there, however.
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The name of the individual whose receipt Jenkins posted online included the man's name: Devin Barnes -- and Barnes denies ever having written the slur.
Though the Tennessean said Barnes, 20, couldn't be reached for comment, his pastor, Richard Duggar is far from a racist. Duggar's church is split about evenly between white and black members and Barnes regularly socializes with all church members.
"They know him and he knows them so it doesn't fit the mold," Dugger said, adding that Barnes has received threats because of the incident.
Duggar said Barnes wrote "none" on the slip -- because the order was for take-out -- but he did not write the racial slur.
With Barnes' reputation in question, Duggar hired a handwriting expert to examine the photo. The expert, Thomas Vastrick, a forensic document examiner, agreed there were no similarities between the handwriting of the word "none" and the racial slur, meaning it's likely someone else wrote it.
Jenkins said if she could do it over she would have blacked out Barnes' name. She said she was trying to draw attention to racism, not one person in particular.
"I was not trying to get back at him or bring any attention to him at all," Jenkins said. "I have nothing against him. I can only imagine what he is going through. I was trying to bring attention to racism."
She denied writing the word herself.
"I am saying whoever wrote it was wrong in whatever manner it was written. I don't know who wrote it. I did not write it."
