Manhattan supreme Court Judge Edward Lehner greenlighted the discrimination and hostile workplace lawsuit filed by former Hooters Girl Melody Morales against the Hawaiian Tropic Zone restaurant, which is located in Times Square.
Morales, 22, sued the restaurant in January 2009 after two hiring managers rejected her for a job because they allegedly didn’t like her “Latin accent.” Morales is of mixed Dominican and Puerto Rican background.
The Hawaiian Tropic Zone, which refers to itself as “The Hottest Place on Earth,” is also facing a $600 million federal lawsuit from four former female workers accusing an ex-boss of sickening and widespread sexual harassment and a hostile workplace.
The harassment eventually escalated into rape and forcible sodomy. The women — a former senior manager, a bartender, a hostess and an office assistant — claim their former boss, Anthony Rakis, subjected them to months of lewd and toxic behavior while management turned a blind eye. In September 2006, the suit alleges, Rakis drugged and brutally raped ex-senior manager Giulietta Consalvo in a taxi.
According to the lawsuit, Anthony Rakis, a married, 40-year-old father of two, “is a rapist and sexual predator who was given full rein by the Riese Organization to sexually assault, molest, batter and rape the female employees. In that sense, he was not unlike a pedophile at a daycare center.”
Also targeted in the lawsuit is popular Manhattan chef David Burke, who allegedly groped Consalvo and others. Burke devised the menu for the Hawaiian Tropic Zone restaurant.
Sources: NYDailyNews.com and NYPost.com
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Just when you think your workplace is unbearable. I can’t even imagine working somewhere like that.