During her 14 months working at People’s Choice Realty in Brooklyn 23-year-old Priscilla Agosto says her male co-workers exposed themselves, rubbed up against her, asked for oral sex, and offered $500 to watch her have sex with her girlfriend. She said she complained to her supervisors but they did nothing. When a co-worker finally slapped Agosto across the face, she quit and eventually filed sexual harassment charges.
In response, company owner Odelia Berlianshik said, “Who would touch her? She’s an ugly girl anyway. She made up a story because she didn’t want to work.” Berlianshik also said that the person who slapped Agosto “apologized and offered to buy her lunch,” which totally makes it OK.
Agosto’s lawyer Brendan Chao says that another ex-employee backs up Agosto’s claims.
chrissie riot
I really hate the idea that a woman can’t be sexually harassed if they aren’t terribly attractive. Also: I don’t think she’s ugly at all.
Mr_Charming
I really hope this woman bleeds that company SO DRY that she never has to work a day again in her life.
Jonas
From the picture it looks like she’s quite a nice looking person. I hope she takes these people for every penny they owe her.
Jess
First of all, I think she’s beautiful, and even if she wasn’t, that guy is awful for suggesting that she’s too ugly to be harassed.
Secondly, her co-workers sound like creeps; that’s horrible. I hope she wins her case and get’s a good amount of money from the company.
Nice Sean (formerly Sean, and Sean from england.)
Respectfully, I would. This company is terrible, I thought we had sorted this crap out, why is it still going on in this century?
Syl
The sort of douchebag men who sexually harass don’t care if you’re pretty, skinny, white, black, straight, or gay. It’s like rape: it’s about power, narcissism, and their own insecurity. I’ve worked enough workplace harassment cases to know. I hope she fucking breaks them.
And she’s not ugly! Not my type, but cute.
Ian
She’s an attractive woman. Hopefully she’ll prevail in a suit against the assholes and put the realtor out of business.
christopher di spirito
People’s Choice Realty in Brooklyn sounds like a frat house. I’ve never seen anything like this at any job I’ve ever had.
Sam Wheat
Being sexually harassed is inexcusable, but did anyone ever bother to ask why she was slapped in the first place? Seriously—does she want us to believe she was slapped simply because she’s a lesbian? In all due respect, she might have provoked it, and like everyone else in our litigious society, plans to cash in on the legal lottery.
JayKay
@Sam Wheat:
How dare you sir. Women never lie about, or exaggerate anything ever. They certainly don’t lie when it could benefit them financially. We should all just assume she’s telling the truth and call for the public execution of her oppressors.
Troll
$500 to watch her have sex with her girlfriend? I wouldn’t pay more than $9.99.
Shannon1981
I hope she wins so much they go out of business.
Aiden
@JayKay: Wow, not only are you transphobic,but your a sexist asshole too.
Nim
Someone should slap JayKay and smush their lunch in his face.
fuzzy
@Sam Wheat: I don’t care why she got slapped. If somebody’s so immature or out of control that they feel the need to physically assault a co-worker (no matter what sort of verbal provocation there may or may not have been), they deserve to be called on it.
Dave
A) She’s not ugly. Not by a long shot. But then, most women’s idea of what constitutes feminine beauty is demonstrably fantastical. Her bit…I mean, her boss probably has similar delusions. And what’s funny is that straight men, when asked to pick out very attractive women from an array of photos, line drawings, live models, etc. (researchers have used every representation of women they could dream up in such studies), consistently, across the board and across cultural and racial and age boundaries, choose healthy, curvy, filled-out women with wide hips, substantial butts, and some meat on their bones. Which probably contributed to Ms. Agosto’s harrassment–and her bit…I mean, her boss’s apparent fit of jealousy.
B) The man who slapped her should be charged with assault. ALL involved in harrassing Ms. Agosto should face criminal charges of some sort. If you can’t go to work and do the job you are hired to do because you are experiencing what is in essense adult bullying, the the scum responsible needs to be punished severely enough to learn the lesson they apparently never got as children.
Ryan
Lesbians are typically ugly, anyway.
Mike in Asheville
@Troll: Well, at the very least, you know you’re a fuckin’ troll.
JayKay
@Aiden:
Waiting for all the facts to come out in court instead of assuming the lady looking for a payout is telling the truth no questions asked = Sexism.
Liberal logic.
Politically Incorrect Thug
@JayKay: Hey, good for you for calling out the hypocrisy of the “liberal logic,” but be prepared for all of the “tolerant” responses you’ll get from the people posting on this site. If you despise heterosexual white men, you’ll be a lauded hero; however, unless you tow the hyper-gay line, you’ll be labeled a self-loating homophobic bigot. Been there.
Ian
@Politically Incorrect Thug: Yes yes yes, all liberals are assholes. Thanks for bringing us some clarity. We’re in your debt. Now move along…
Dave
The liberal vs. conservative war that always seems to be simmering in the background on this site seems…odd (I guess that’s the best word) to me.
I always just say what the hell I think; sometimes self-identified conservatives have praised my thoughts while other times it’s been self-identified liberals.
I guess I don’t see the point it getting my hackles raised when folks express points of view that are truly outside of mainstream logic. I mean, sure–there are pomo warrior liberals who hate white males and believe that all of the ills of history occurred because of white males. And there are cultural warrior conservatives who are sure they’d get respect from mainstream conservates if it weren’t for those goddamned thong-filled Pride parades and pansy-ass swishy queers prancing around flaunting their disgraceful…err, swishiness in public.
As far as I can tell though, the only people who are getting pissed off are the members of the two vocal-but-tiny groups. Everyone else thinks they’re BOTH nuts.
xander
@Dave : True that. We humanoids love to think in binary terms, even when doing so blinds not just to nuances, but whole wide swaths of reality!
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As for Ms. Agosto, doesn’t she have potentially two separate causes to pursue? I.e. she may have one for sexual harassment and then one for ‘assault’ (the purported slapping incident).
Saddened
@Jess: I’m pretty sure Odelia is a woman. Which makes it that much more depressing.
Saddened
@Sam Wheat: Because slapping a co-worker is totally an appropriate response if she was getting on his nerves?
Saddened
@JayKay: You would have a point if and only if you were actually taking an agnostic stance on this. You’re not. Working from the assumption that the plaintiff is lying is no less biased than working from the assumption that she’s not. Meanwhile, using logic that is neither liberal nor conservative, just, you know, logic, I notice that we have a documented response from her employer that lends credibility to the plaintiff’s claim. So, yes, I’m disposed to believe that there’s a strong possibility that the plaintiff’s claim is valid. What’s your evidence for your belief that she’s lying, other than that this is your default position on any such claim?
xtiaan
shes attractive, but those those earrings with THAT necklace arent doing a girl any favours…