Customer accuses Clear Lake restaurant of stealing engagement ring

A Clear Lake restaurant is being sued over claims it refuses to return a diamond engagement ring, which allegedly fell out of a customer’s pocket.

Peter Kehle filed a lawsuit on May 13 in the Harris County District Court against Cullen’s Upscale American Grill and Shakerra Sampson citing, among other things, conversion, gross negligence and trespass to chattel.

Kehle says that while having dinner at Clear Lake’s Cullen’s Upscale American Grill, he showed his friends and his waitress, defendant Sampson, a diamond engagement ring he owned. As Kehle was leaving the restaurant, he discovered the diamond engagement ring had fallen out of his pocket, according to the brief.

Kehle says that he filed a police report with the Houston Police Department, who investigated the matter as a theft, after learning the defendants had the ring but refused to return it to him.  

Kehle is seeking actual, consequential, exemplary and incidental damages, as well as attorney’s fees and court costs. He is being represented in the case by Austin attorney Thomas Washmon.

Harris County District Court Case No. 2011-29105.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed at the Harris County Courthouse. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it only represents one side of the story.