Pedro Lucero says he was working as a night manager at the Gristedes at 350 E. 86th St. near First Avenue when security supervisor Stephen Trevor told him on several occasions in April 2005, "You Spanish people can't stop getting into trouble," according to a complaint filed in Bronx Supreme Court.

Four months later, Lucero says he was watching a cash register while the cashier was in the bathroom when "an apparently drunk customer placed $30 on the counter for 12 beers and walked out."

He says he didn't ring up the sale because he didn't have the register key, but he put the money in the register and told the cashier to ring up the sale when she returned.

Five minutes later, Lucero says, the security supervisor accused him of stealing the $30, called him a "f- - -in' Mexican," summoned cops, and demanded that Lucero be arrested, according to the complaint.

In a store security report, Trevor says he saw Lucero pack up the beer for the customer without ringing up the sale. A copy of the criminal complaint says Lucero did not ask for payment and did not receive any.

Lucero was charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, court records show.

But the case was later closed and sealed, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

Lucero charges that he was wrongly busted and spent a night in jail.

He also accuses the store of maliciously prosecuting him because, although a bookkeeper later told him that the register was $28 over that day, "the store said nothing to police, even though the information would have provided evidence that plaintiff had not stolen the money . . . ," court papers show.

Gristedes owner John Catsimatidis said Trevor wasn't reprimanded for the alleged ethnic slurs because upper management was unaware of the allegations until the civil suit came to light.

denise.buffa@nypost.com