Cobble Hill Starbucks Employee Files Sexual Harrassment Case

After years of alleged ridicule, humiliation and, finally, termination, a Brooklyn barista is filing a sexual harassment and disability discrimination case against Starbucks.

Former shift supervisor Kari Smith said her experience working at the chain's Cobble Hill coffee outpost was the worst of multiples locations, according to a release. 

Suffering from a medical condition known as Syncope, which causes uncontrollable and unpredictable fainting, Smith was the target of many terrible slurs, she stated. In her Complaint she writes that after sustaining injuries from a fall, her coworkers at the 167 Court Street location responded saying things like "You must like it rough!", "Next time she'll do what I say", "She's in Fight Club, but not very good at it" and "She needs to leave her boyfriend."

Later, when Smith required treatment, she alleges that her store manager told her, "You're ruining everyone else's lives!" and "You're an inconvenience to everyone else in the store!"

Smith listed further indignities in the sexual harassment portion of her Complaint, according to the release, which stated:

"One employee would repeatedly ask Ms. Smith if she wanted to 'make out' with him. Male employees at the Cobble Hill store would engage in what they considered a purported "game" of bending over and pinning women between their behind and the wall. This became known as getting "a** raped." Moreover, there was an isolated storage room in the basement of the Cobble Hill store which was dark and had no cameras and was openly referred to as the 'rape room.'"

Smith said she alerted her store manager and district manager, but that the result was her termination while on medical leave. She was told the cause was not filing necessary disability paperwork, despite being in constant contact with her company.

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