A Circuit Court lawsuit says Alicia Jean Dawson fulfilled a life's dream by opening her own tanning salon, then Dia Huggins ruined it.
The suit says that in 2000, Ms. Dawson used $2,000 of her life savings and borrowed other money to open Sunny Beach Tanning Salon and Day Spa on Apison Pike.
She said she kept working and hired Frieda Merindino to manage it. The opening was Dec. 5, 2001.
The suit says the business did well at first, then she was approached by Ms. Huggins, a friend of Ms. Merindino, who volunteered to help out without pay.
It says she "became a full-time fixture" at the salon. She said Ms. Huggins began to degrade her in front of the customers, to go into her office and go through her records, and would read depositions from a lawsuit aloud to customers.
The tanning salon became "a gossip hangout," it was stated.
The suit says business began to go down, and it finally had to close.
Ms. Dawson is asking $300,000 in the suit filed by attorney Richard Klingler.