On Wednesday, former New York 1 reporter Adele Sammarco testified that coworkers had suggestively edited footage of a technician trying to fix her zipper, adding in porn music and planning to air it at an office Christmas party. But Sammarco flipped out on the witness stand yesterday when the tape was played in court, and there was no porn music or lewd editing. The footage played for jurors in the sexual harassment trial simply showed Sammarco giggling at the anchor desk as a technician worked on her stuck pants zipper with pliers.
"There were several cameras rolling in the newsroom," Sammarco said. "That's not the tape. You're lying!" The Post reports that Sammarco "sparred with defense lawyer Bettina Plevin on the origin of the tape and nearly every point the lawyer tried to make, disputing documentation, terminology and simple math." And according to the Daily News, "Sammarco appeared to suffer an emotional meltdown on the witness stand, leading Brooklyn Federal Judge Roslynn Mauskopf to call a recess at one point."
Sammarco says executives repeatedly ignored her complaints about the alleged sexual harassment, and claims she was fired because she complained that former reporter Gary Anthony Ramsay groped her.
Yesterday lawyers for New York 1 showed jurors a 1999 letter from Sammarco to her agent, stating that news executives put her on notice she was doing a poor job. Her first allegation of sexual harassment came seven months later, and the defense is suggesting that Sammarco fabricated or exaggerated the level of misconduct to give herself grounds for a lawsuit.
