A former NY1 reporter who claims that her complaints about sexual harassment and a hostile work environment have kept her from new work opportunities will be in court this week. Adele Sammarco tells that the Daily News "in the nine years she's been off the air, she's been able to find work only in public relations jobs on Staten Island" and says, "I'm relieved my case is finally going to trial after a near-decade of fighting. I believe in equal pay for equal work and that no one should ever be abused on the job."
Sammarco grievances include how former reporter (and former spokesman for former Comptroller Bill Thompson) Jeff Simmons Photoshopped a picture of her to have huge breasts, former reporter Gary Anthony Ramsay "attacked" her while he was driving her how, many staffers "regularly referred to her by the acronym 'BBB' and later told her the nickname stood for 'Big Butt Booty'" and that Vice President of Programming Steve Paulus had "a dozen news assistants rate who had 'bigger boobs' - Sammarco or another reporter. Sammarco won."
She was fired in 2001, after complaining about Ramsay's behavior; Sammarco claims it was for her complaints but NY1 says she wasn't a good reporter. In court papers, the station says, "Simply put, Sammarco's claims of a hostile work environment are an after-the-fact work of fiction." Last year, the expected witness list included many local media personalities, including Dominic Carter and Jimmy Breslin. Carter, who was let go from the station when convicted of beating his wife, had left a voicemail for Sammarco saying she got a "raw deal."
