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nj.com

Christian V. McOmber, Peter D. Valenzano, and Tiffany M. Yacullo represent Alyssa Sanchez in a sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and retaliation lawsuit against licensed cannabis operator Verano NJ LLC, located in Somerville, New Jersey. Named defendants in the lawsuit also include Larry Wharton, Ken Merced, Latoya Bynum, Kim Torres, and VZL Staffing Services LLC.

The Complaint alleges Ms. Sanchez was subjected to countless harassing, misogynistic, and lewd comments from her direct supervisor, Mr. Wharton. Specifically, Wharton would often ask about intimate details of Sanchez’s sex life and marriage, compared Sanchez to his own wife, and commented on more than one occasion that he “thought about you [Sanchez] last night.” Each time, Sanchez would make clear to Wharton she wished to keep their relationship strictly professional. Despite this denial, Wharton would further search for Sanchez throughout the workday in Verano to engage in conversation with her and would frequently watch her whereabouts on the security cameras. When Sanchez engaged in conversations with co-workers, Mr. Wharton would be nearby, intensely staring at her.

Eventually, in Complaint paragraph 43, Ms. Sanchez alleges she brought her concerns about Wharton’s behavior to the Production Manager, Ken Merced, around July 6, 2022. Although Mr. Merced admitted he received several complaints about Wharton’s conduct from other employees, he ultimately failed to address the situation with the parties and instead promoted Sanchez in efforts to quiet her protest.

The Complaint continues in paragraphs 53 to 59 that despite Sanchez’s complaints to both Mr. Merced and Human Resources in which they promised follow-up meetings, no meeting was scheduled. When Sanchez finally informed her union, a meeting was commenced on July 14, 2022 with Ms. Bynum, Ms. Torres, Mr. Merced, Mr. Wharton, and a Union Representative. In this meeting, the named defendants appeared hostile towards Sanchez, commented inappropriately on her claims, and insisted the meeting “hurry up.” In fact, her complaints were essentially brushed aside, and the meeting culminated in Sanchez’s escort out of the building by a male security guard. The next day, Sanchez’s Union Representative informed her that the named defendants claimed she resigned from Verano, despite Sanchez never indicating such an intention.

This lawsuit, which is filed in Somerset County Superior Court, alleges violations of New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination. Ms. Sanchez seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees and costs.

“The allegations in the Complaint have no place in a civilized society and must be condemned. Verano’s actions of maintaining employment of an alleged sexual harasser and willfully minimizing serious complaints from our client needs to and will be exposed. We are proud of Ms. Sanchez for her courage in speaking out and standing firm that no woman should endure this kind of behavior in the workplace.” Tiffany M. Yacullo, Esq., McOmber McOmber & Luber, P.C.

R. Armen McOmber and Austin B. Tobin represent the parents on behalf of their minor disabled son, J.W., in both hostile classroom environment and retaliation claims pursuant to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“NJLAD”) and negligence claims against the Board of Education of the Township of Ocean (“OTBOE”) and a number of its supervisory and teaching assistant staff.

Despite Minor Plaintiff J.W.’s numerous disabilities and his need for trained, professional care during school hours, Ocean Township Elementary School knowingly, negligently, and callously hired unqualified employees to staff the Learning Language Disabled program. Not only was J.W. deprived of a safe and positive learning environment, but also, he was forced to endure the humiliation that no child should ever fall victim to. The complaint alleges, egregiously, that J.W. was repeatedly forced to use a bathroom that was so small that the assistant could not shut the door, forcing J.W. to leave the bathroom open for all to see. Worse, a video was taken of J.W. by his own instructional assistant during one of these incidents.

The negligent actions of the OTBOE and the hostile environment resulting therefrom led a young boy to be paraded around school, naked for all to see. This lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and a jury trial for the blatantly unlawful conduct in violation of New Jersey law.

“The allegations, in this case, are deeply troubling and our clients have suffered immensely.  Simply put, the Ocean Township School District completely failed a minor student with special needs.  J.W., a young boy with Down Syndrome and multiple other disabilities was entitled – like every other student – to a safe and positive learning environment.  Instead, as alleged in the complaint, our client was paraded around the school in a humiliating fashion because of his disability.  There is no excuse for such conduct and our clients look forward to their day in court.” R. Armen McOmber

NJ.com features Partner Matthew A. Luber, Esq. & Meghan A Pazmino, Esq.’s recent sexual harassment lawsuit against the American Dream mall. Their client alleges she was sexually harassed for more than a year by her manager and then was fired when she complained. She did not feel safe at work after several instances of unwanted touching, discriminatory comments, and retaliation.

Matthew A. Luber, R. Armen McOmber, and Tyler J. Burrell represent an Essex County Corrections Officer, Daniela Agudelo, in a sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation case pursuant to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“NJLAD”) against Defendants County of Essex, Antonio Pires, and Michael Costa.

As alleged in the Complaint, Defendant Pires, one of the highest-ranking officers at the prison, subjected Ms. Agudelo to repeated and egregious sexual harassment.  As alleged in the complaint, Defendant Pires, who is 48 years old and married, exploited his position of authority to manipulate and coerce Plaintiff, a 32-year-old female, into a sexual relationship.  As described in the complaint, Defendant Pires sent text messages to Ms. Agudelo, “Cause I do thinking of you and your fake boobs” and “I have much love for you, so much, that I am willing to let my imaginary relationship go to let you fly high.”  Defendant Pires also allegedly showered Ms. Agudelo with gifts and conditioned her career advancement on a sexual relationship.  When Ms. Agudelo rejected Defendant Pires’ advances, Defendant Pires allegedly retaliated by ordering his officers, “she needs to be buried” subsequently eliminating her overtime ability and reassigning her to unfavorable shifts.  The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as a jury trial for the alleged unlawful retaliation in violation of New Jersey law.

“The allegations are deeply troubling and Ms. Agudelo has suffered immensely.  As alleged in the Complaint, our client was subjected to unequivocal sexual harassment and an unlawful quid pro quo relationship.  We are proud of her for taking a stand against such an abuse of power and privilege.” 

      Matthew A. Luber, Esq. and Managing Partner of McOmber McOmber & Luber, P.C.

“We fully expect that Ms. Agudelo’s co-workers will come forward and corroborate the allegations. Our client also looks forward to her day in court.” 

      Tyler J. Burrell, Esq. of McOmber McOmber & Luber, P.C.

Matthew A. Luber and Meghan A. Pazmino represent Nurse, Allison Stec, in a whistleblower action pertaining to Cooper Hospital’s failure to address reports that, for years, a doctor was treating pediatric patients while impaired.  As alleged in the complaint, Cooper failed to take action to address Stec’s internal reports and commenced an immediate, retaliatory, and orchestrated effort to compel her resignation.  The doctor in question, who is not identified in the complaint and referred to as “Dr. Doe” out of respect for her family, died just a few days after Ms. Stec made her third formal complaint in June 2021.  The Complaint asserts that Ms. Stec pleaded with hospital officials and her direct supervisors in the Pediatric Gastroenterology (“GI”) department to take action, and to provide help for Dr. Doe. The Complaint alleges, however, that Cooper brushed Ms. Stec’s concerns aside, misled investigators, and retaliated against her for attempting to bring the patient safety issues to light.  Ms. Stec claims that, for years, numerous Cooper employees had serious concerns for Dr. Doe’s health and well-being, and for the safety of patients.  The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and a jury trial for the alleged unlawful retaliation in violation of New Jersey law.

“It takes immense courage and strength to bring a matter like this to light.  Ms. Stec did everything she could to help Dr. Doe and was waving the red flag long before Dr. Doe’s tragic death.  For the hospital to turn its back on Ms. Stec, and to call into question her character and work performance, is shameful but not surprising.  Ms. Stec looks forward to her day in court.”  Matthew A. Luber, Esquire and Managing Partner of McOmber McOmber & Luber, P.C.

“Ms. Stec is not alone in this fight.  We fully expect that other Cooper employees will come forward and acknowledge the organizational failures here, which date back to 2019.”  Meghan A. Pazmino, Esquire of McOmber McOmber & Luber, P.C.

On April 12, 2022, Partners Charles J. Kocher and Matthew A. Luber  filed this consumer class action in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on behalf of their client and a proposed class of Rutgers Business School MBA and other master’s degree students to recover the premium tuition they paid for a high ranking business school when, in reality, Rutgers was allegedly reporting false and misleading data about its employability statistics after graduation to third-party ranking organizations, such as U.S. News and World Report and the Financial Times, in order to inflate the rankings.

This was a massive fraud on Rutgers’ prospective students. Rutgers was unjustly enriched through its retention of tuition premiums paid by Plaintiff and Class members.  A copy of the as-filed Class Action Complaint may be found below.

“Rutgers Business School allegedly reported misleading data to U.S. News and World Report, among other educational ranking organizations, to boost its rankings. But just as falsification of data is a violation of Rutgers’ own Academic Integrity Policy, Rutgers needs to be held accountable here under the law. This class action seeks to recover the premium tuition paid by Plaintiff and the proposed Class for Rutgers’ MBA and other master degree programs are given the tainted rankings.” – Partner Charles J. Kocher

As reported in NJ.com’s “Rutgers created fake jobs for graduates to boost MBA program rankings, lawsuit charges”:

But in a whistleblower lawsuit filed Friday, a Rutgers administrator charged that the university fraudulently burnished those national rankings by creating totally bogus jobs to show the success its business school graduates had in finding employment.

The lawsuit by Deidre White, the business school’s human resources manager, alleged the program used a temp agency to hire unemployed MBA students, placing them into sham positions at the university itself — for no other reason than to make it appear like a greater number of graduates were getting full-time jobs after getting their Rutgers diplomas.
“The fraud worked,” wrote White’s attorney, Matthew A. Luber of McOmber McOmber & Luber in Marlton. In the very first year of the scheme, they said Rutgers was suddenly propelled to, among other things, the ‘No. 1′ business school in the Northeast

The university did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

By going through an outside temp agency, the lawsuit claimed the university was able to circumvent restrictions in the ranking systems that do not allow universities to count internal hires for purposes of their employment statistics.

White, 54, who alleged she was the subject of retaliation over health and other issues aimed at forcing her resignation or termination, said the university used more than $400,000 of its endowment to fund the fake positions and to pay what she called “kickbacks” to the employment agency.

Photo credit: NJ.com 

Monmouth County prosecutors announced charges on Monday against multiple students from Wall High School with hazing, attempted criminal sexual contact, false imprisonment, and harassment. The charges stem from attacks that occurred in September and October 2021 in the football team’s locker room wherein one student was “held down by four or five of his supposed teammates while they try to probe him with a broom or their fingers while they’re struggling to get away,” said Armen McOmber, the attorney representing three of the attack victims. According to McOmber, his clients were “terrorized” by what happened to them.

Attorneys for the defendants are downplaying the behavior as mere locker room horseplay, however, Armen McOmber takes serious issue with that characterization. “The idea that four or five guys can hold down another student and attempt to penetrate them, the idea that that’s acceptable conduct, that’s just ‘boys being boys,’ it’s just really warped. It’s offensive and it’s sick.”

Mr. Luber represents hospital nurse Patricia R. Moran, in a whistleblower lawsuit, who discovered staff at Monmouth Medical Center improperly administering Benadryl to patients. Ms. Moran was subjected to immediate retaliation after she reported employees who intentionally disregarded patient safety standards and falsified patient medical records.

As alleged in the complaint, the hospital turned its back on Ms. Moran and immediately retaliated in an egregious fashion, all because she exposed illicit conduct and sought to uphold the highest standard of care for patients.  No employee deserves to be treated in such a manner, let alone someone who has dedicated more than 31 years at this particular hospital.  Ms. Moran looks forward to her day in court.  – Matthew A. Luber

Press Coverage:

  • NJ.com
  • App.com
  • Long Branch Patch
  • NBC4 New York
  • NBC News
  • Jersey Shore Online
  • ABC7 New York
  • ABC News
  • The Hill
  • Beckers Hospital Review
  • Fox News
  • News12 
  • New York Post

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