A sicko textile employee ran a “rape room” on the on the Queens manufacturing unit of a significant British clothes model the place he overtly preyed on feminine colleagues, a surprising new lawsuit claims.
Greenpoint resident Aleksandra Pietras mentioned the wicked male co-worker started attacking her simply weeks after she began working on the manufacturing unit operated by the French Connection, sexually assaulting her dozens of instances for over a yr, in accordance with her go well with filed Sunday.
“I by no means thought one thing like this might occur to me,” Pietras, 60, instructed The Put up in an emotional interview. “This man destroyed my life.”
The employee, Jose Sabando, 45, allegedly dragged Pietras to distant elements of the Hollis manufacturing unit to assault her, till he finally broke off a padlock to an empty room, the place he continued to unleash his torment, the go well with states.
Contained in the room, the place Pietras says she was raped no less than 4 extra instances, the ground was coated in handprints and fluids, in accordance with the go well with and images shared with The Put up.
The “brutal” man’s conduct was so well-known within the manufacturing unit that the largely feminine and Polish staff even instructed one another to keep away from him as he lurked within the hallways throughout work hours, ready for girls to stroll by, the go well with states.
Not less than 4 different Polish co-workers had been victimized, Pietras’ go well with claims, and the manufacturing unit supervisors allegedly both knew or willfully ignored the employee’s reign of sexual terror.
Pietras was fired days after she threatened to go to the police until he stopped, states her Brooklyn Supreme Courtroom lawsuit, which names Sabando, manufacturing unit supervisors and the French Firm as defendants.
Talking by means of her lawyer who translated from her native Polish, Pietras mentioned she’s now scared to even depart her house.
“It was the worst yr of my life,” the distraught lady mentioned. “I don’t understand how lengthy it’s going to take to place my life again collectively.”
Pietras started working her minimal wage job as a textile employee on the manufacturing unit for the French Connection — a clothes firm identified for his or her provocative FCUK branding — on Jamaica Avenue in June 2023.
“I actually loved the work,” she mentioned.
Immediately, she observed Sabando, a gregarious fellow textile employee who would speak and joke with everybody, together with her, Pietras mentioned.
Just a few weeks into the job, Sabando “started following and accosting” her throughout work hours, the lawsuit claims.
“I used to be strolling down the steps from one ground to a different,” Pietras recalled of the primary alleged incident, “and he appeared from behind a column.”
With out saying a phrase, Pietras mentioned he instantly forcibly grabbed her and began kissing her, placing his tongue in her mouth.
“I turned extraordinarily scared. I used to be in shock,” she mentioned. “No man has ever completed something like this to me earlier than… I felt like I’m coping with a wild man.”
Pietras was apprehensive that “I used to be gonna get fired if I say [sic] something.”
Throughout that first alleged rape, as she fought to free herself, she recalled him telling her: “I like you.”
From that time on, Sabando “started forcefully dragging [Pietras] into an area situated behind a column inside an empty hallway on the second ground of the French Connection Manufacturing unit,” the place he would “repeatedly power her to have sexual activity,” the lawsuit states.
The brutal assaults would final 5 minutes or so till he completed, and usually occurred close to the tip of her shift, Pietras mentioned, when the manufacturing unit could be much less crowded.
“I used to be strolling in direction of the subway and crying hysterically all the best way house,” Pietras instructed The Put up.
From that second on, the horrific alleged rapes turned a daily a part of work for Pietras, who mentioned she was violated “dozens” of instances between that summer time and the tip of 2023.
She refused to take breaks at work to keep away from leaving the manufacturing unit ground, she instructed The Put up, and her searches for a brand new job had been fruitless.
“I needed to have the job,” Pietras mentioned, saying that she actually appreciated the work.
“I’m gonna attempt to energy by means of and be sturdy,” she recalled telling a detailed buddy who had urged her to stop.
Her seasonal work ended that November and Pietras traveled again to Poland for a number of months till final spring, when she returned to New York Metropolis and to the manufacturing unit.
Pietras mentioned that’s when “it became an actual nightmare.”
Whereas she was in Poland, Sabando had allegedly smashed open a padlocked door within the manufacturing unit the place he now introduced his victims — and the place Pietras “noticed a number of handprints and liquids on the flooring and partitions,” the go well with claims.
She couldn’t eat for days after the alleged assaults, which she mentioned “had been essentially the most violent and aggressive.”
“I misplaced 20 kilos,” she mentioned, noting that pants that she had simply purchased in Poland now barely match her waist.
Pietras began opening as much as her Polish co-workers and realized that Sabando’s abuse was an open secret and that previous victims had ended up being fired as soon as the violent creep grew bored with them, the go well with claims.
Sabando’s girlfriend, who labored at a special firm in the identical constructing, “appeared on the French Connection Manufacturing unit a number of instances throughout [Pietras’] shifts, screamed at her, and known as her a ‘whore’ in entrance of a number of coworkers and supervisors,” in accordance with the submitting.
“She says that ‘you’re not the primary one. They all the time do that to him — they all the time come and trouble him, and also you’re simply one other one,’” Pietras mentioned the girlfriend would inform her.
Pietras’ co-workers mentioned that was a part of the smear marketing campaign to construct a case towards her — that will paint Sabando because the sufferer of Pietras’ sexual predation.
Sabando allegedly made a number of pretend social media accounts in her identify this previous fall, utilizing footage of her, and despatched messages to himself and to his girlfriend in poorly-translated Polish, the go well with states.
“‘Oh, look, she’s writing to my girlfriend,’” Pietras recalled Sabando saying to a body of workers within the break room.
“‘She’s writing to me. She’s insane — take a look at that,’” Pietras mentioned he would declare, passing the cellphone round and drawing laughs from the group.
“I used to be so embarrassed,” she mentioned.
The alleged id theft and his public “gaslighting” marketing campaign was the final straw, Pietras mentioned.
She threatened to go to her boss — or to the police — until he stopped raping attacking her, the go well with states.
Sabando allegedly laughed at her, saying “‘that is all of your fault. What are you speaking about?” Pietras claimed.
Two days later, on Oct. 15, Pietras’ supervisor approached her on the manufacturing unit ground driving a mini-scooter and fired her with out stating a motive, the criticism alleges.
She tried to elucidate what was occurring with Sabando — even displaying her bosses graphic pictures of his genitalia that he ceaselessly despatched unsolicited — however they instructed her to depart and by no means come again, not even to choose up her final paycheck, in accordance with the go well with.
Days later, Sabando allegedly emailed her to say, in his trademark poorly auto-translated Polish, “why did you inform them? Why did you present them my photographs?” Pietras mentioned.
She added that so far as she is aware of, Sabando nonetheless works on the manufacturing unit.
Pietras’ lawyer, Nicole Brenecki, mentioned manufacturing unit supervisors have refused to even mail the examine to her workplace, one of many many civil claims contained within the go well with, which seeks unspecified damages.
“It’s unacceptable that giant companies proceed to victimize marginalized people corresponding to our consumer in an effort to extend profitability,” Brenecki mentioned in a press release.
“It’s all the extra discouraging that such companies would allow unspeakable acts of sexual violence and discrimination to happen towards a number of feminine staff inside their office.”
Sabando and French Connection didn’t instantly return requests for remark.
Along with the civil go well with, Pietras mentioned she has met with detectives from the NYPD’s Queens Particular Victims Unit, and is at the moment compiling proof for a prison criticism.
“The hurt was on so many, many various facets of my life, it was not simply bodily,” Pietras instructed The Put up.
“I don’t need another lady there to expertise this once more.”
Extra reporting by Steven Vago
