A woman is accusing an employee of a popular Danvers farm of racially profiling her and her sister after a day of apple picking went awry earlier this month. 

Nicole Pepin told NBC10 News that she is seeking charges against a male Connors Farm employee after he accused her of stealing apples and then became so aggressive he assaulted her, sparking a scuffle, she said. 

According to a Danvers Police report, Pepin told police she was with her sister and children at the farm and began walking towards the parking lot after they finished picking apples. On their way, a male employee followed them to the parking lot, and accused her of stealing apples and hiding them in her children’s stroller, she told police. 

Pepin said the employee grabbed the stroller’s handle and pulled it towards him, then grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her towards him. 

The employee recorded her on his phone as she continued towards her car. The employee was “extremely close” and stuck his phone in her face, she said. 

In response, Pepin told police that she took out her phone and held it as if she was recording the employee, holding it close to his face. 

Then the employee yelled that Pepin had assaulted him, and he struck her hand down, ripping the phone out of her hand and shoving her back, Pepin told police. Her phone was thrown across the parking lot. 

Pepin says she struck the employee back in self-defense. She was not injured. 

Connors Farm

In a statement provided to Boston.com, Connors Farm says it is aware of these “concerning allegations with respect to negative interaction at our farm between a patron and our security personnel.”

Connors Farm says it “takes these allegations very seriously and is actively investigating the matter.”

The farm says it cannot make any specific comments at this time. However, it says, “Connors Farm welcomes all persons regardless of race, national origin, gender identity disability, religion and looks forward to continuing to serve the community.” 

Operating since 1904, Connors Farm has thousands of visitors each fall, and offers activities such as apple picking, exploring a corn maze, hay rides, and ropes courses.

Another view

The police also spoke to a witness who said that when she was driving into the parking lot, she saw the employee getting “up in (Pepin’s) face.” The witness saw the employee slap Pepin’s arm, snatch the phone from her hand, and throw it, after which Pepin hit the employee. They were then “chest to chest” and arguing before another employee stepped in to separate them, police reported the witness as saying. 

The police later spoke with the employee, who told them that he was alerted over the radio by another employee in the apple orchard that a customer had more apples than she paid for in the bottom of a children’s stroller. 

He told the police that Pepin had walked outside the orchard and had not stopped for him, which was when the confrontation happened. He alleges that Pepin “ran over his foot” with the stroller and that he pulled out his phone to pretend like he was calling the police. 

The employee told police that he began recording the incident, and in response, Pepin began recording him back. He claims that she struck him in the face with her phone. He then grabbed the phone and threw it away to “distract” her, he said, which is when Pepin allegedly began striking him. 

The video recorded by the employee and viewed by the police shows the employee getting “extremely close” to Pepin as she loaded her stroller and children into the car. Nothing physical happens in the video, but it is clear that the employee gets “uncomfortably and unnecessarily close” to Pepin, the officer wrote. 

Boston.com could not reach Pepin for further comment by the time of publication. 

After viewing other video footage and speaking with witnesses, the officer reported, “It appears that (the employee) is the aggressor in the incident.” 

“By following (Pepin) out to her vehicle and getting extremely close to her, sticking his phone in her face, and ultimately striking her arm and throwing her phone across the lot, he clearly provoked the incident,” the police report said. 

The police also spoke to the farm owner, Robert Connor, who immediately became defensive and accused the police of siding with the women, according to the police report. 

The officer reported that Connor continued to speak over him and commented about his farm’s customers. The comments were to the effect of, “We have plenty of problems here,” and “You could lock up half the crowd,” according to the report. The officer wrote that he understood the comments to be referring to racial minorities and insinuating they were criminals. 

Not the farm’s first incident

The incident is not the first time that employees at Connors Farm were accused of racially profiling their customers. 

In 2021, Manikka Bowman, the former vice-chair of the Cambridge School Committee, and her husband, Jeff Myers, reported a “traumatic experience” when they were stopped by security officers and escorted inside the store. Their belongings were searched, and police were called to the scene. 

Connor’s Farm at the time said it regretted the incident and apologized to the family. 

---

Beth Treffeisen is a general assignment reporter for Boston.com, focusing on local news, crime, and business in the New England region.

---