My question involves defamation in the state of: Maryland
My husband and I recently purchased a vacation/future retirement home out in the middle of nowhere. The population is very low and there are very few businesses. There is ONE chain store within driving distance that has a pharmacy, though.
My daughter, a college student, visited us this past weekend and needed a refill on a prescription. I advised her to go to the one and only chain store with a pharmacy near our home. She went to the pharmacy counter and gave the clerk ALL of her personal and insurance information and was told that if she wanted to wait, it would take between 30 and 40 minutes.
Sbe decided to wait and spent her time looking at cosmetics. The store was having a big sale. She spent more than $200 on cosmetics and other items, but her prescription was still not ready so she walked around outside for a while and then went back into the store to pick up the prescription.
When she came back to our house, she found out that one of the items she purchased (a small electric razor) was defective. She went back to the store to return it. Within 5 minutes of her return to the store, she found herself surrounding by the town police and a few state troopers. Apparently, the store manager did not realize that the reason she spent so much time in the store earlier in the day was because she was awaiting a refill of her medication. The store manager would not come out and tell us why she called the police....but after searching my child, demanding her identification and thoroughly humiliating her, it was clear that a mistake had been made.
I thought everything could be made right by a simple apology. But the folks at the store won't apologize and won't say why they called the cops on my child. The police immediately realized that my daughter was innocent after they surrounded her and thoroughtly embarrassed her in front of the townspeople who gathered.
Anyway, my kid was really upset by the incident....and so am I. Is this OK for a store to do? Her expense receipts show she spent $600 in the store ($350 on the medicine and another $250 on cosmetics and miscellaneous stuff).

