Results tagged “harassment”

A 44-year-old mother of two died and three others were critically injured by a fire that tore through a Flushing apartment early Sunday morning. The deceased, Bianca Wisniewski, was due in federal court today for a hearing in her $20 million sexual-harassment lawsuit against Total Safety Consulting and JPMorgan Chase. Four of the 110 firefighters at the scene suffered minor injuries, and the fire was ultimately contained to the single apartment, because the cement and steel walls stopped it from spreading.

Does your boss beat you with walkie-talkies or try to extort you for $20K in cash? If not, you might have it better than some bus and taxi workers in Queens— who say that their employer took advantage of their immigration status to make their lives a living hell.

Days after his arrest while sitting in a playground restricted to adults with children, alleged police-sodomy victim Michael Mineo has blasted NYPD spokesman Paul Browne, accusing him of lying about the collar. Browne had told the press that Mineo was arrested Monday night only after he argued with police who ordered him to leave the playground; the NYPD says that dispute led to cops checking his ID and discovering a warrant for his arrest (related to a community service snafu). But Mineo, who believes cops are harassing him because he's embarrassing the department with his sensational sodomy accusations, tells the Daily News, "They never even asked me to leave, never, it's just not true. They just handcuffed me and put me in the car." His lawyer adds, "We're going to add that incident and that statement to the federal lawsuit. It shows a pattern and practice of harassment." Mineo has filed a $220 million federal suit against the city and three officers are under indictment for the October 2008 incident.

A son of state Senator Pedro Espada Jr. has pleaded guilty to harassment against 76-year-old blogger Rafael Martínez Alequin at a campaign rally last September. According to Martínez Alequin, several people, including Alejandro, began shoving him and trying to grab his camera as he approached Espada. And when he begged Pedro to call off his son, he answered, "He's trying to teach you manners papa. He's trying to teach you manners." (Here's video.) Alejandro, who's the director of one of his father's controversial health clinics, agreed to a restraining order and must pay $432 for the broken camera. But Martínez Alequin wants a stiffer punishment and tells the Daily News, "I was attacked because I was asking questions. I asked [Sen. Espada] to stop [his son]. I said they were hurting me. I was traumatized and I fear for my life." In other Espada dynasty news, our new state Senate Majority Leader is getting "dramatically" larger office space! Espada's spokesman tells the Post, "We have more responsibilities so we'll have more employees and we need more space." As Martinez Alequin can tell you, Espada really needs his space.

Yesterday, a construction safety coordinator filed a $20 million lawsuit, accusing her employer of ignoring reports of sexual harassment while working at a Park Avenue JPMorgan Chase building site. Bianca Wisniewski, a 43-year-old widowed mother of two, says she repeatedly fended off lewd advances from elevator operator Steve Greco in 2007. According to the suit, Greco's overtures included grabbing her around the waist and cooing, "I just want to take you to dinner, no fu*king," and "Everybody kisses engineer Steve. This is a man's world, not a place for women to work." The suit accuses LIC's Total Safety Consulting of ignoring her complaints, offering her job back but then rescinding the offer and replacing her with a man. Her lawyer says, "What I find atrocious is that here's a woman who was working in a job where we have... crane accidents and people dying, and she was in a position of authority to ensure safety. But when she reports a guy vilely hitting on her, instead of protecting her safety, they protect a scoundrel." None of the defendants in the lawsuit—JPMorgan Chase, Total Safety, Greco, and his union—have formally commented, but Greco told a Daily News reporter yesterday, "I don't know [Wisniewski]. I don't know what you're talking about."

The Critical Mass ride that wrapped up Bike Month last Friday night saw an increase in participants, as well as an increase in summonses for "failure to keep right" while cycling, which biking advocates maintain is not a valid ticket and is regularly dismissed in court. (The rule in question, RCNY 4-12(p)(3), states that "Bicyclists may ride on either side of one-way roadways that are at least 40 feet wide.") Over a dozen summonses were issued, some during a sting at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge, where police wrote tickets for cyclists without front and rear lights.

Back in 2002, former NY1 reporter sued the local news station for creating a hostile work environment. Among Adele Sammarco's claims were that one reporter Photoshopped her photograph to show her with "giant breasts and the photo was then plastered all over the newsroom" and that another NY1 anchor "attacked" her in his car. Now the Daily News reports that the witness list submitted for the case is long and features a "who's who of New York journalism."

Tyra Banks took the stand today in the trial of the man accused of stalking her. Brady Green, 39, was arrested for stalking and harassment after he showed up to see Banks last March at the Chelsea studios where she tapes her talk show. Staffers of the show had panicked when Green arrived, recognizing his name from flowers he had sent and phone calls he had made—including one where he threatened a producer. In court today, the model-turned-entrepreneur said, "I know I have fans, but I've never in my entire career had my staff react in this way."

Simon Hammerstein, proprietor of decadent downtown burlesque theater The Box, has been hit with a lawsuit filed by two former employees who accuse him of sexual harassment. You may recall this sordid story; twin sisters from Portland, "famous" for their onstage sex toy routine called "Twincest," quit The Box over the summer amidst allegations that Hammerstein was "forcing" them to perform sexual favors for him, and generally treating The Box as his personal, drug-fueled harem. In a subsequent NY Mag profile called "The Impresario of Smut," Hammerstein denied the accusations, but a number of people associated with The Box seemed to support the twins' debauched depiction of the place. Their lawyer tells the Post, "He felt free to treat them as his porcelain toys to play with at will." But until they can get some payback from the Impresario, they'll be performing their act around Portland, and selling their book, The Porcelain Twinz, Our Life in the Sex Industry, through their website, where you can also purchase their DVD!

If you've been following along with the allegations of sexual harassment and general depravity at The Box—the nightclub where guests pay over $1,000 so that performers like transvestite Miss Rose Wood can pull a Jameson's bottle out of his ass, take a swig and then spit on them—you may be interested in NY Mag's lengthy profile on owner Simon Hammerstein, "The Impresario of Smut." He strongly denies the most scandalous accusations, but unnamed sources say auditions for Simon sometimes climax back at his apartment. Miss Rose Wood has perhaps the best Hammerstein horror story: "Then Simon said to me, ‘So, can you pull a string of Christmas lights out of your ass?’ I said to him, ‘Well, you know, I’m Jewish. And so before the Christmas lights come out, I’ve got to dislodge the menorah.’" That's professionalism, people!

A former library assistant who was arrested in a case of mistaken email identity will receive a little over $25,000 in a settlement with the city.

Disgruntled delivery workers chanted "No Justice, No Noodles!" at a raucous demonstration outside Union Square's Republic restaurant yesterday; the crowd was gathered to protest against co-owner Jonathan Morr and his alleged retaliation against eight workers who filed a federal labor-violation lawsuit last April. Seven of those eight workers remain, and they say that since the lawsuit they've had their hours cut dramatically and have been subjected to constant harassment from management, including being cursed at and being served rotten food. Representatives from the 318 Restaurant Workers Union and the Justice Will Be Served! campaign, who organized the lawsuit, were there to support the workers.

Staten Island's Danielle Masseria (MySpace) says her "whole life changed" in June 2007 while working at an Ecko Unlimited outlet store in the Jersey Gardens mall in Elizabeth. In a sexual harassment lawsuit filed last week against the company, she says that she was humiliated by store manager Kirk Rummer, who sneaked up behind her and allegedly stuck his hands into the back of her pants. The suit says, "He then grabbed and pulled her panties and jeans away from her body and threw a fistful of coins down into the crack of her buttocks." Masseria's co-worker allegedly chimed in by shouting, "Jackpot! Jackpot!" Now Masseria says, "I don't trust anyone." Speaking to the Post—which went with the headline GAL TAKES A CRACK AT SUING OVER 'COINS DOWN BUTT'—the coworker says, "The way it's portrayed in the complaint is completely untrue." Maybe you had to be there?

Dennis Riese, CEO of the Riese organization that owns the Hawaiian Tropic Zone, is coming out against allegations of sexual assault and rape involving a Tropic manager filed in a lawsuit against the chain this week. Riese claims that Giulietta Consalvo, the woman who accuses manager Anthony Rakis of raping her in a cab, told him in 2006 that she was in fact not raped and even recommended a friend of hers to be Rakis's personal assistant after the alleged attack. Riese claims that the women who filed suit are simply trying to shake the company down and had asked for $100 million a year ago if they would remain silent on the matter. Another former employee Tiffany Studstill tells the Post that she thinks the women who filed the suit "are doing it for money" and that while she worked at the restaurant, she "never saw anyone in management do anything inappropriate." She also denies the suit's claim that she and Rakis had a relationship.

More sordid details have emerged from that explosive $600 million discrimination lawsuit brought by four ex-employees of Hawaiian Tropic Zone, who accuse executives of ignoring their complaints against former manager Anthony Rakis. At a press conference yesterday, one of the plaintiffs, former manager Giulietta Consalvo—who accuses Rakis of drugging and raping her in the back of a cab in 2006—told reporters, "I want to see him pay criminally. Absolutely, he deserves his freedoms taken away from him. I went through the proper channels, through the corporate . . . chain of command that they tell you to do when you have such complaints...and my voice went unheard."

Midtown's Hawaiian Tropic Zone Restaurant, whose bikini-clad waitresses make Hooters look like Chuck E. Cheese, has been hit with a $600 million discrimination lawsuit by four female former employees who accuse executives of ignoring their complaints against one-time general manager Anthony Rakis. The lawsuit declares that Rakis's relentless sexual harassment escalated into rape after a pre-opening party in 2006, when he jumped into the cab of former floor manager Giulietta Consalvo. Rakis allegedly threw money at the driver during the assault and said, "Keep driving, buddy," leaving her at her apartment "appearing drugged and disoriented."

A friend wonders if it's "wrong of the MTA to place a public announcement ad about sexual harassment next to an ad for silk boxer shorts with the subway map on them." And the Transit Museum Store's description of the boxers ($25) is pretty racy, too: "These days, finding your way on the MTA can be as easy as taking a peek down under, thanks to our silk boxer shorts featuring the official New York MTA Subway map."

Scandal has once again ensnared The Box, that decadent burlesque nightclub where the elite gather to enjoy diversions like ''toss a ring on rods stuck up the lady’s orifices." Yesterday self-described "fetish-burlesque" performers Amber and Heather Langley, a.k.a. the Porcelain Twinz (pictured), posted a long, 5,085 word jeremiad on their MySpace blog condemning club owner Simon Hammerstein for sexual harassment, unsafe working conditions, debauched drug use, and leaving his Labrador behind to defecate "all over" the filthy, rat-infested green room. (He allegedly blamed that one on one of the performers.)

A Williamsburg high school teacher is filing a federal discrimination complaint against the Department of Education. After three years of complaining about students fondling her, calling her a "b-- licker," and flinging condoms at one another, the only response the NY Daily News says social studies teacher Theresa Reel got was a scolding from the Department of Ed for wearing a "low cut, V-neck, lace top" that was deemed "inappropriate attire." Reel claims that she doesn't even own such a top and that she has waited this long to take action against the Department ignoring her because of fears of what would happen to her job without having tenure.

Would an anti-groping ad campaign provoke more frequent bad behavior in New York's pervy subway sleezes? Following last year's study by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, transit officials began working on a public awareness campaign to stop the offenders; the study found 63% of respondents have been sexually harassed and 10% reported having been sexually assaulted in the subway system. The NY Post reports on concerns that have stalled the campaign.

Anti-groping campaigns have been launched in cities such as Boston [pictured], where trains and buses are adorned with posters bearing such slogans as "Rub against me and I'll expose you," and "Flash someone and you'll be exposed." The number of reported groping incidents there did rise with the campaign, officials said. Boston police said there were 38 incidents reported through June of this year compared with 17 during the same period last year.

A 24-year-old former library assistant at the fancy Riverdale Country School in the Bronx is suing the city and several police officers over a case of mistaken email identity that landed him in jail for 30 hours and left him publicly disgraced. The trouble started last year after William Hallowell sent a resignation email to Robin Bernsen, the head librarian at the school. She replied sympathetically, according to the Times, and Hallowell moved on with his life.

Last month Tavern on the Green settled a discrimination lawsuit for $2.2 million dollars; today the Times has a detailed profile on the lead complainant, an East African immigrant who grew up in refugee camps before escaping to the U.S. as a teenager. She says that while working at Tavern as a hostess, “I was asked to perform sexual favors in great detail by this manager. And when I refused, I was told that I was not going to get the schedule I wanted.” In case anyone needs more reasons to shun Tavern, she goes on.

Who knew radio could be so dangerous? The Daily News reports that deejay Wendy Williams' husband (the two are pictured together) had plotted to kill one of Hot97's deejays, a rival who allegedly trashed his wife on the air.

Earlier this week, a judge decided that a man found guilty of stalking actress Uma Thurman did not deserve jail time. Instead, Jack Jordan was sentenced to psychiatric counseling and three years probation in Maryland. However, Jordan was spotted in Lower Manhattan yesterday.

Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg signed off on the city’s first law enabling tenants to sue landlords in Housing Court for systemic harassment. Previously, tenants had to take landlords to court for each and every violation, such as failure to provide hot water or letting so much water leak that floors collapse. The so-called Tenant Protection Act is primarily aimed at landlords who are trying to force tenants out of rent-regulated apartments in order to bump the rent up to obscene market rates.

The Boston priest arrested for stalking "Late Night" talk-show host Conan O'Brien has been found fit for trial. A Manhattan judge declared the Reverend David Ajemian mentally fit for trial after a court-appointed psychologist examined him. Ajemian was arrested after issuing a number of threats to the host of the NBC talk show host and attempts to get into an O'Brien taping. Ajemian was relatively more unhinged than your average show biz stalker. He was...