THE American woman who is at the centre of a fierce legal battle with two community organisations in the Outer Hebrides has broken her silence on the case that could leave a charity bankrupt.
Claire Kellerman has found herself in the middle of a media storm after it emerged that the Bernera Community Association, which runs a volunteer-run community cafe on the island, and the Bernera Development Trust both face financial ruin after she launched legal action against them.
The 62-year-old, who moved to Lewis from California in 2023, is looking for £10,000 in a legal claim after she was last year refused permission to bring her dog into the Bernera Community Cafe.
Kellerman’s lawyers, the Glasgow-based Ethnic Minorities Law Centre, initially launched a court challenge against the Bernera Development Trust, which ran up legal costs of more than £7000.
However, they then admitted in court that the action was directed against the wrong organisation. The trust was awarded legal expenses, but Kellerman is protected from paying costs under the rules of the civil legal aid scheme.
Her lawyers have now brought a claim against the community association, the voluntary group that runs the cafe.
Since the case emerged last week, Kellerman has faced a torrent of abuse online, with many people raising questions around her assisted dog, her disability, why legal aid is funding her case and what happened in the lead-up to the lawsuit.
Speaking exclusively to The National, this is what Kellerman had to say.
Her background
Despite being born and raised in California, Kellerman said that her father was originally from Lerwick, Shetland, but then grew up in the US.
“I'm Scottish from at least 493AD and most likely even further back,” she said.
“I have every single person on the way to me, including Robert the Bruce and Mary Queen of Scots, in that line somewhere. The point I'm making is I'm Scottish.”
Many people online have described Kellerman as from a privileged background, as she was brought up in Hollywood and is the adoptive daughter of Sally Kellerman, who played Hot Lips Houlihan in the 70s American war comedy film MASH.
Kellerman said that she was privileged, but went on: “I couldn't be anything further from an entitled American. What I am is a very creative, very courageous, and very humble woman.
“I'm also very clear about what's right and what's wrong, and I'm not going to allow the wrong to continue beyond once it crosses my path.”
How it all started
Although Kellerman said she is “not allowed to really talk about the case,” she outlined some of the main points – and claimed that “disgusting” crimes will come out in court in February.
Kellerman said that it wasn’t long after she moved to Stornoway in October of 2023 that she first started to experience “discrimination” where she was told that she was not allowed to bring her assistance dog into a store.
From there it snowballed, and she claimed there are now 13 businesses that have all denied her dog access into the premises.
Kellerman claimed that she was set to sue five Stornoway businesses because “they were so adamant that I absolutely could not access their services”.
She said that she instead got funding to write them a legal letter, outlining that her dog is an assistance dog.
“I don't want to sue them because they saw the case and it was so strong, and this is what's happened with all these people,” Kellerman said.
“They're just so mean, and then they band together and say I was aggressive.
“I'm not a wallflower, I'm not quiet, I'm American.”
She added: “All these businesses were equally hostile, targeting, dismissive of my needs, dismissive of the law, and I gently and lovingly and then strongly and sincerely said it's actually illegal.”
Kellerman claimed that for almost two years the 13 businesses were “cruel” to her, and that she could not find anyone to “remedy a gentle reconciliation”.
She said she then moved to Bernera as she heard it was a “great community”.
“It's really active and you'll have the best time,” a woman from the island told her.
“She doesn't know the cruelty they show, because they don't show people their cruelty unless they want to shun them,” Kellerman said.
Is the dog an assistance dog?
At the centre of the debate online, and a pivotal point in her case, is Kellerman’s dog: Lady Tarkina Snow Fire.
Found in a desert in New Mexico by the Humane Society around four years ago, Kellerman said that she adopted Tarkina and trained her herself.
“She was mentally just so challenged, so she lived alone in a cement room, and all the other dogs had a little friend, but she couldn't be with other friends because she'd been so traumatised by being attacked by so many dogs,” she said.
Kellerman also stated that she adopted Tarkina three days after a family with a three-year-old “brought her back” because she was “barking so incessantly because she was so upset about life”.
According to Kellerman, Tarkina is an Australian cattle-dog mix, potentially with a German short-haired pointer.
In a letter sent to the 13 Stornoway businesses and seen by The National, Kellerman’s lawyers said: “We act on behalf of the above-named client, who is a disabled person within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010 and who relies upon an assistance dog for disability-related support and day-to-day functioning.
“Our client’s assistance dog is trained and recognised for the purpose of mitigating the effects of their disability and accompanies them in public settings as a reasonable and necessary aid.”
Did her dog kill a cat?
According to reports circulating online, Kellerman’s dog was claimed to have killed a cat in Stornoway.
Kellerman has strongly refuted these claims and, instead insisted that the cat attacked her, leaving “two puncture wounds” on her legs.
“The cat did not touch my dog and my dog did not touch the cat, so please don't bring that to me,” she said.
Legal aid
Kellerman said that on Wednesday her lawyers contacted her to assure her that legal aid had gone over her case three times, along with the Stornoway Sheriff, due to people questioning why she qualified for the financial help.
Kellerman said she had written to “every law firm in the whole UK”, and the one firm that said they would take her case was the Glasgow-based Ethnic Minorities Law Centre.
She claimed: “They took it to a Scottish barrister and they're like, ‘You will win. What they've done to you is completely inhumane, unethical, and illegal’.”
Kellerman was insistent that the “work” she is doing is “literally for the good”.
“It is not to be egregious. It's not to hurt anyone. It's not to harm them. I literally am just asking them to take accountability. They refused. Therefore, the lawsuit went forward, and at every point they could have apologised.”
Claims of bullying
Local reports allege that Kellerman is known on the island for threatening business owners with legal action over her right to bring her dog onto premises.
She has also been accused of shouting at staff, using abusive language, and in some cases bringing staff members to tears with her actions.
To these claims, Kellerman suggests the hostility was due to her American accent.
“I'm coming to support a local business in a very generous way, and instead I get an immediate hostility,” she said. “I didn't realise that was a thing.”
She also addressed claims she made some staff members cry, including one incident where she was asked to leave with her dog four times.
However, Kellerman said she had “explained” to them that she is disabled and that asking her to leave was “breaking the law”.
Her disability
Kellerman declined to divulge any details of her disability, bar acknowledging she has had it since 2015.
“I'm not going to tell you much,” she said. “It's personal and there's a point at which I don't want a gynaecological exam in the media.
“It's almost at the point like, could everyone please exit my colon? Like I'm just done.”
She explained that she has given her lawyers a US doctor's letter outlining her disability, along with a UK doctor's letter that proves that she suffers with one.
Kellerman added: “I've also had a lot of issues where people are trying to say I'm mentally ill, I'm a psychopath, I'm a sociopath.
“I am so sane it's scary. I'm so sane.
“Nobody can bring their corruption and not be lit up in front of me. I will light up corruption that crosses my path because it's not acceptable.”
Why is she ultimately suing the cafe?
Asked why she has launched the legal action against the community organisations, Kellerman said: “I want no one else to ever feel helpless, hopeless, shunned, humiliated, victimised, abused, and illegally discriminated against as a disabled person with an assistance dog or just as a beautiful stranger.”
She added: “I'm a beautiful stranger who's been absolutely abused, and look at us now.
“Look at what's happening now to me, to my name. It's not acceptable, and that's why I'm doing it.”
