A retired investigative reporter said he was refused service at a Cambridge coffee shop after employees mistook him, a Black man, for someone they claimed had previously caused trouble.

Phillip Martin, 71, an award-winning reporter for GBH who retired earlier this year after more than two decades with the station , said he was meeting with another journalist at Caffè Nero in Central Square on Thursday when he tried to order a cup of tea.

A woman working at the counter told Martin that her boss instructed her not to serve him if he came into the cafe again, according to Martin. He said he told her she must be mistaking him for someone else, but the woman insisted, “No, we have you on video.”

Martin and the employee each called police, he said. After officers spoke with Martin and the

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