Worker openly ran ‘rape room’, assaulted employees in clothing company French Connection’s NYC factory: suit
The worker, Jose Sabando, 45, allegedly dragged Pietras to remote parts of the Hollis factory to assault her, until he eventually broke off a padlock to an empty room, where he continued to unleash his torment, the suit states. Pietras was fired days after she threatened to go to the police unless he stopped, states her Brooklyn Supreme Court lawsuit, which names Sabando, factory supervisors and the French company as defendants.
Pietras began working her minimum wage job as a textile worker at the factory for the French Connection — a clothing company known for their provocative FCUK branding — on Jamaica Avenue in June 2023.Right away, she noticed Sabando, a gregarious fellow textile worker who would talk and joke with everyone, including her, Pietras said.
“I became extremely scared. I was in shock,” she said. “No man has ever done anything like this to me before… I felt like I’m dealing with a wild man.”During that first alleged rape, as she fought to free herself, she recalled him telling her: “I love you.” Her seasonal work ended that November and Pietras traveled back to Poland for a few months until last spring, when she returned to New York City and to the factory.While she was in Poland, Sabando had allegedly smashed open a padlocked door in the factory where he now brought his victims — and where Pietras “observed multiple handprints and liquids on the floors and walls,” the suit claims.
Sabando’s girlfriend, who worked at a different company in the same building, “appeared at the French Connection Factory multiple times during shifts, screamed at her, and called her a ‘whore’ in front of multiple coworkers and supervisors,” according to the filing. “‘Oh, look, she’s writing to my girlfriend,’” Pietras recalled Sabando saying to a group of workers in the break room.