By Jon Saraceno
Roy Black, the nationally renowned criminal and civil litigation attorney, said Tuesday that the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against the New York Jets and their former quarterback, Brett Favre, is flawed.
Shannon O’Toole and Christina Scavo allege that they lost their jobs as massage therapists for the team after complaining that Favre sent them sexually suggestive text messages when he played for the team in 2008.
“There’s really not much merit to this lawsuit,” Black said.
Black, whose clients have included William Kennedy Smith, Rush Limbaugh and Kelsey Grammar, said he had not read the lawsuit filed this week in New York Supreme Court. Based on what he has read in media reports, he said proving the case would be extremely difficult for a couple of important reasons.
Black called “two issues very damaging to their case” — the women did not report the alleged texts to Jets management and they waited until 2011 to take legal action. “Naturally, if something like this happened and was disturbing, you would make a complaint within days — you would ask for some type of redress from the employer,” the Miami-based attorney told USA TODAY. “Secondly, you wouldn’t wait (two years) to file a lawsuit.
“We all know what’s happening here: the (Jenn) Sterger controversy has them jumping on the bus. The (therapists) want to take advantage of the same situation because they see some weakness in the Jets’ position. Clearly, they’ve positioned themselves to get some type of settlement — they are hoping (the Jets) settle rather than go through some messy lawsuit.”
Sterger, also a former employee of the Jets, alleges that Favre sent her lewd photos and texts during his only season in New York. The NFL said last week that it found no evidence that Favre violated league policies relating to workplace conduct, but fined Favre $50,000 for failing to cooperate in the league’s investigation of him.
Favre, who played the last two seasons for the Minnesota Vikings, said Sunday he was retiring from pro football.
Sterger has not filed a lawsuit stemming from her allegations.
Gary Glaser, an attorney for the Jets, said Tuesday through a team statement that the “plaintiffs never reported allegations to the Jets, either during or after the conclusion of their work.”
Also named in the lawsuit is Lisa Ripi, who did the hiring of the team’s massage therapists.
David Jaroslawicz, principal partner of the law firm representing the women, said Tuesday that his clients filed a lawsuit when it became apparent the Jets would not rehire them.
He said he sent a certified letter last October to the Jets, with a copy to the NFL, “once we realized (the women) were not being called” back to work.
“They wanted their jobs back, which I told Jets’ counsel,” Jaroslawicz said. “They told me, ‘No, we can’t do that.’ They just wanted to be where they were before this happened.”
Black said, if true, that makes their sexual harassment and discrimination claims against the Jets even more specious.
“Why would you want to go back and work (for them?),” he said.
Attorney Elizabeth Eilender, who represents the women, told Reuters that “the courage these women have to bring this case against somebody like Brett Favre, who is an icon in the NFL, is tremendous.”
Jaroslawicz said he has not heard from attorneys for the Jets, or Favre, since the lawsuit was filed.
