January 30, 2002
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A man who alleges he was hired as catering director of Manhattan's Park Lane Hotel has sued owner Leona Helmsley for $5 million, saying he was fired because he is gay.
Michael Ward says in court papers that Helmsley fired him August 20, the day he was supposed to start work, at a salary of $65,000 a year plus 3 percent of catering sales.Ward's suit alleges breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and discrimination in hiring on the basis of sexual orientation.
The suit, filed last week in New York’s Supreme Court, further argues that Helmsley has no legal standing to fire him because state law bars convicted felons from participating in any business where liquor is sold or served. Helmsley, accused of using hotel employees to work at her estate in Greenwich, Conn., while writing off their pay as business expenses, was convicted in 1989 on tax evasion charges. She served 18 months in prison.
Ward's lawyer, Catherine Paszkowska, said, "Our belief is that [Helmsley] had him fired because he is homosexual." Ward is the third gay man to sue Helmsley for firing him because of sexual orientation.
Charles Bell, a former general manager of the 600-room hotel, and Patrick Ward, a former chief operating officer, have also sued her.
Bell’s $10 million suit claims Helmsley was "extraordinarily vocal to Bell and others about her disdain for minorities and gays," adding in court filing that she used the word gay as "an insult," and once said, "I hate Donald Trump; Donald Trump is gay."
Trump’s longtime assistant, Norma Foerderer, begged to differ. "Mr. Trump has the greatest respect for the gay community, but he's the least gay person I've ever known or met in my life," she said.
In response to their legendary feud, Trump described Helmsley in a Forbes magazine article as "a horrible, horrible human being."
According to Bell’s lawsuit, in a strange twist, Helmsley later tried to hire him back, and one of his former bosses left a voice-mail message urging him to return, saying he was fired only "because you are gay." Bell's suit is pending.
Patrick Ward’s suit (no relation to Michael Ward) was settled for an undisclosed amount.
Helmsley's lawyer, Robert Costello, called Michael Ward's lawsuit "a joke. The allegations are not only false but show a very poor job of copying from the Bell case." Costello said Ward was not fired for any reason since "he was never hired."
A New York hotelier is
fighting allegations that she is homophobic.
In a $5 million lawsuit
Michael Ward alleges that Leona Helmsley sacked him on his first day at work
because he is gay.
Ward’s lawyer, Catherine Paszkowska, said that her
client was dismissed from his management job at the Helmsley Hotel on 20 August,
after Helmsley discovered his sexual orientation.
Ward said the sacking
came after he met with Helmsley and told his supervisor he was gay.
The
supervisor, who is also gay, was also fired that day, the lawsuit says. Helmsley
lawyer Robert Costello said the supervisor was eventually hired back.
Costello described the lawsuit as "ridiculous”. He said Helmsley had no
idea Ward was gay and sacked him because "he didn`t impress her."
Helmsley is fighting three other bias-related suits. Costello said:
"She`s an attractive target for nuisance suits."
In 1992 Helmsley, who
owns the Empire State Building, served 18 months in prison for mail fraud and
tax evasion. She was dubbed “The Queen of Mean” in the media because of her
reputation as a formidable employer.
A gay man who is dying of AIDS is accusing the management of a building Leona Helmsley owns of trying to throw him into the street.
Owen-Pahl Greene is fighting eviction from a penthouse in the Buchanan Building, at 160 E. 48th St., that he says he shared with his late boyfriend.
Greene, who says he lived in the 2,000-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment on and off for 25 years, claims he's being evicted because his name was never on the lease.
"I think they want me out of here so bad because I have AIDS," he told us.
"I've even offered to pay fair market value, but they just want me out." Greene also claims that he has been called a "fag" by one of the building's doormen.
But a lawyer for Helmsley says Greene hasn't been able to prove he lived in the building even for two years, which would entitle him to take over the apartment.
And Michael Berman, a lawyer for Townan Realty, of which Helmsley is a partner, said the building's management was not aware Greene was dying of AIDS.
"We never even knew he was HIV-positive until he put it in one of his court papers," Berman said. "If he would show us reasonable documentation that he was living here for two years, we would consider making a reasonable decision. He's stonewalling us."
Greene says he was dropped by his lawyer because he can't afford to pay legal fees. "I'm spending $6,000 a month on AIDS medication. It's either pay my attorney or pay for my medicine, which keeps me alive."
Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman for Helmsley, told us: "Leona owns a minority interest of the building and had no knowledge of this lawsuit. She never, never would base an eviction on someone having AIDS."
Helmsley, 81, has been besieged with anti-gay accusations lately.
Patrick Ward filed a $10 million lawsuit against the billionairess after she said he was gay in a Wall Street Journal interview last year.
The couple hit it off in 2000, when he was 45 and she was 80, and Helmsley hired the eye doctor as the chief operating officer for her massive real-estate company. Ward claims that after he told Helmsley he was not interested in her, she fired him in 2001.
Charles Bell, a former general manager at Helmsley's Park Lane Hotel, hit Helmsley with a $10 million wrongful-termination lawsuit last year.
Bell says he was fired simply because he was gay. He claims in court papers that Helmsley barred blacks as maids and fired an Asian florist for not being an "American."
August 5, 2002
NEW YORK -- A Manhattan judge slapped
Leona Helmsley with a $10,000 fine on Wednesday citing non-cooperation in a
defamation lawsuit brought against her by a gay former employee, Patrick Ward.
Ward, a 45-year-old Miami optometrist, was hired by the
81-year-old Helmsley to be chief operations officer and vice chairman for
Helmsley Enterprises, her real estate empire. Though he denied that he had given
her any impression he was romantically interested in her, she was widely quoted
by friends and associates as giddily entertaining thoughts of marriage.
Her plans and Ward's position in her company came to an
abrupt end when Helmsley discovered what others in Manhattan society had long
been whispering -- that Ward was gay. After threatening to file a lawsuit over
his abrupt dismissal, Ward settled with Helmsley in March for an undisclosed
amount, according to representatives of both sides.
That would have been the end of the story, but in a move to
ease the pain of humiliation she had suffered, aired a series of defamatory
accusations against Ward in the Wall Street Journal. She painted a lurid image
of Ward as a man determined to steal her money and kill her.
"It was a brutal article," said Ward's attorney, Ray
Hannigan. "He's lost family, friends, business contacts, you name it."
Helmsley was to face Ward's lawyers for a pretrial
deposition -- but she failed to show and told the judge she was too ill to keep
the appointment.
Supreme Court Justice Walter Tolub was later shown a
videotape of a smiling Helmsley leaving a Midtown Manhattan restaurant with a
dog in her arm on the same day she claimed to be bed-ridden. "I believe Mrs.
Helmsley simply doesn't want to be deposed, period," said the judge.
Helmsley was ordered by Tolub to pay the hefty fine for
"willful and frivolous attempts to avoid giving a sworn pretrial deposition to
lawyers for Patrick Ward," according to the Associated Press.
But the $10,000 fine is a pittance compared to the millions
her act of defiance may cost her. By refusing to be deposed in the defamation
case, Helmsley has forfeited the right to defend herself against Ward's charges.
The only issue to be decided before the court now is the amount of the damage
award she will have to pay.
"Because her answer was thrown out yesterday, Pat Ward has
won that case on liability -- she's liable to him," Hannigan said. "Now the
issue is how much -- what is the damage worth to him? We have a large number of
witnesses to demonstrate how she destroyed him."
Patrick Ward was the third gay man to sue Helmsley alleging
anti-gay bias. Charles Bell, the former manager of Manhattan's swank Park Lane
Hotel, filed a $10 million suit against Helmsley in June 2001. Michael Ward, the
hotel's former catering director was fired in August of that year and filed a $5
million suit in January 2002.
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