A Connecticut federal judge's ruling will allow the discrimination lawsuit of a supermarket manager to move forward. Jorge Mercado, who worked in a Price Rite store, claims he was repeatedly harassed about his Puerto Rican heritage, falsely accused of threatening another employee with a gun and swarmed by police officers and forced into a cruiser.

U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton recently ruled that the evidence was sufficient to allow Mercado to go to trial on an array of discrimination claims as well as on a count of negligent infliction of emotional distress. However, the New Jersey-based supermarket chain was successful in getting another count, for intentional infliction of emotional stress, dismissed.

Mercado was hired to work on the night crew of the Windsor Price Rite in November 2009, and was promoted to night-shift manager in 2010. According to court records, Mercado was an excellent employee and received only positive feedback until a new store manager, Gary Semrau, was hired in April 2013.