In court yesterday to defend themselves against a sexual harassment lawsuit, executives and staffers at NY1 went on the offensive against a former employee who claims that the news station is run like "a high school boys' locker room." Reporter Adele Sammarco says she was fired three weeks after she complained about being groped by former reporter Gary Anthony Ramsay. But according to a lawyer for Time Warner, which owns NY1, Sammarco was fired because she was a "chronic complainer about everything at work." NY1's Senior Vice President Steve Paulus was more blunt.
"She wasn't doing a great job," Paulus testified, as Sammarco wept openly. She claims that during her nine years at the station, she was subjected to harassment that included a Photoshopped picture of her with huge breasts, created for by fellow reporter Jeff Simmons for a contest at an office picnic. But no harm done according to Time Warner's lawyer, because Sammarco "laughed when she saw [the enhanced photo]." Another time an unidentified employee put a photo of a half-naked woman in her mailbox and then shouted, "You need to get laid," when she removed it. It's unclear whether Sammarco chuckled along with that witticism.
As for her allegation of "groping," that was just a "peck on the cheek" from her co-worker Ramsay; according to NY1's lawyers, he drove her her home after she got too drunk at Cafe Iguana. "He did not want to leave her there with people she didn't know," Time Warner's lawyer argued. "She is complaining that she is underpaid compared to men. There is good reason why Mr. Ramsay and Mr. Simmons were paid more." Like their hilaaaaarious Photoshop skillz!
