A third waitress has come forward to charge that managers at a popular East Side bar forced her to get on a scale – and then ordered her not to eat during her 11-hour shifts.
Kate Pryor says she was fired after confirming to a private eye hired by the Sutton Place Restaurant and Bar that she and other waitresses had been weighed by managers.
When they weighed and fired Pryor, the managers did not know she was three months pregnant, she said.
Pryor’s allegations are being added today to a $15 million Manhattan Supreme Court sexual-harassment suit filed two weeks ago by former Sutton Place waitresses Kristen McRedmond and Alexandria Lipton.
McRedmond claims managers tried to weigh her, and Lipton claims she was ordered to reveal her weight so a manager could write it down.
They say they were fired after complaining about the treatment.
Meanwhile, new information has emerged about Richard Kassis, the owner of the Second Avenue watering hole.
Kassis, 36, is awaiting trial in Miami on charges that he violently resisted arrest while drunk and directed a racial epithet at the cop busting him.
According to the arresting officer’s affidavit, on Jan. 15, Kassis had been kicked out of a bar, along with his wife, Kristini, for “for being aggressive towards customers.”
He allegedly approached another bar and “began screaming, ‘F- – – all you n- – – – -s,’ ” at customers there.
When a cop ordered him to leave, Kassis used profanity and said, “Get out of my face, n- – – – -,” according to court records. The officer tried to handcuff him, but Kassis pulled away and pushed the cop, records said.
In November 2003, he was convicted in Texas of DWI and sentenced to three days in jail, records show.
McRedmond and another worker said Kassis would often make anti-Jewish remarks in his Manhattan bar.
Rosemarie Arnold, who with fellow lawyer Joseph Tacopina represents the waitresses, said Kassis “thinks he’s superior in race, gender and nationality to everyone else.”
Joel Simon, a lawyer for Kassis and the bar, said “to imply that Richard Kassis is in any way anti-Semitic when his own grandfather is Jewish is nothing short of shameful.
“We will continue to oppose those allegations, and we will fight within the litigation and not the media to prove that they are false. We will not settle, and we will prevail.”
Additional reporting by Jana Winter (p. 19 Metro)