A 52-year-old Connecticut man banned from Six Flags theme parks nationwide was scheduled to begin fighting his lifetime exclusion before a jury Tuesday in San Antonio.
Jay Marc Harris, the self-described "Flume Dog," sued the theme park operator over the ban instituted in 2006. The San Antonio Express-News reports the trial was scheduled to start in Bexar County court.
The ban came after Harris asked three women at Six Flags Fiesta Texas if he could take their children on the flume ride, according to court documents. The women complained to management, Harris was removed from the property and later banned after his record at other Six Flags locations came to light.
Security staff at the company's Atlanta park once found Harris chained to a tree. In another instance, Harris was found on the grounds of the Chicago location before it opened in the morning. He had apparently slept there overnight, according to court documents.
Harris, who is a Hasidic Jew, argues he was discriminated against based on gender and religion. He had spent more than a decade travelling to parks across the country to ride their flumes, log-styled water drops.
"It's a tragic story in my life," Harris wrote in a message to the Express-News, sent through Facebook.
"I'm the real defendant, although officially I'm a plaintiff," he said. Harris' attorney, Greg Canfield, told the newspaper that Harris continues to visit other water parks, but they don't compare.
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Brad Bartlett, an attorney for Six Flags and Fiesta Texas, said, "At this point, I don't think there's any reasonable resolution to this matter."
"There's a lot of evidence that will be introduced at trial," he added. "It would be premature for me to comment on pending litigation."
