New York bar and restaurant owner Mark Birnbaum was accused last month of assaulting and harassing four of his employees. Now the full text of their lawsuit is out — and boy, is it gross.
The lawsuit, available at Eater, accuses Birnbaum of a variety of misdeeds ranging from inappropriate comments to violent assault. Some especially upsetting allegations:
- That Birnbaum offered a female bartender the following extremely comforting observations after her boyfriend moved out: “you need me to eat you out to feel better”; that they could “just masturbate together”; and “do you think about me when you masturbate? I think about you.”
- That he cornered two employees in a secluded area, “then forced shut the door and demanded that one of them take off her top and show him her breasts and that the other one strip down and show him her ass as he proceeded to unbutton his trousers, having already exposed his pubic hair beforehand to both of them, and put his hands down his trousers to masturbate.”
- That he then further assaulted one of the employees, forcing her to touch his penis, grabbing her breasts, putting his fingers in her vagina, and masturbating in front of her.
- That when yet another employee refused his advances, he said, “If I eat you out that will make you feel better.” Then he forced her to give him a blowjob.
The plaintiffs are seeking lost wages and punitive damages in New York State Supreme Court. If their allegations are accurate, then Birnbaum has a pattern of assaulting and intimidating his employees, as well as acting like coercive oral sex is a great mood-booster for women. And we’ll have to add unsolicited pube-flashing to the list of disgusting harassment tactics employed by creepy dudes.
Annals Of Law [Eater]