Lawsuit: Property owner refused to sublease to father, son because they are Muslim

Accord­ing to court records, C&P Fam­ily Farms Restau­rants LLC, CnK Den­ver Inc., Craig Cald­well, Zuned Khan and Rashad Khan are suing Katina Gatchis for among other things, infring­ing on the plain­tiffs’ con­sti­tu­tional rights.

DENVER — A Capi­tol Hill prop­erty owner is accused of deny­ing a father and son the oppor­tu­nity to sub­lease her prop­erty because they’re Mus­lim, accord­ing to a law­suit filed in Den­ver in April of this year.

Accord­ing to the com­plaint, the father and son are U.S. cit­i­zens and own a suc­cess­ful restau­rant in Boulder.

Accord­ing to court records, C&P Fam­ily Farms Restau­rants LLC, CnK Den­ver Inc., Craig Cald­well, Zuned Khan and Rashad Khan are suing Katina Gatchis for, infring­ing on the plain­tiffs’ con­sti­tu­tional rights, among other things.

The story about the com­plaint became pub­lic over the week­end, when another news orga­ni­za­tion pub­lished the allegations.

Cald­well leased the restau­rant space at 9th Avenue and Corona Street in 2016 from Katina Gatchis. But by 2017, Cald­well wanted to leave the neigh­bor­hood and the Khans were inter­ested in subleasing.

Gatchis would have to approve the deal.

Accord­ing to the com­plaint, Gatchis made state­ments to Cald­well say­ing she would not allow him to sub­lease to the Khans because “he needed to find a good and decent per­son for the lease.”

Gatchis also told Cald­well, accord­ing to the com­plaint, the per­son had to “be American”.

The plain­tiffs’ attor­ney the law firm of Rahod Mohamedb­hai LLC said Cald­well recorded his con­ver­sa­tions with Gatchis and her son.