Posted on: June 22, 2016
By Dareh Gregorian | January 4, 2011 | New York Post
The Jets were hit with an explosive sexual-harassment lawsuit yesterday by two women who claim they were fired after one of them complained about sleazy text messages from former quarterback Brett Favre.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, former Jets massage therapists Christina Scavo and Shannon O’Toole say the graying grandpa tried to convince Scavo — and a third, unidentified masseuse — to huddle up for a threesome.
The suit says the team cut Scavo loose after she and her husband blew the whistle on Favre. O’Toole says she was then fired because Scavo got her the job with the team.
The suit, which seeks unspecified money damages from Favre and the Jets, says the quarterback put his crude moves on Scavo in the summer of 2008, after he’d been ogling her at the team’s Long Island training camp.
“Brett here,” the star athlete allegedly texted the unidentified therapist. “[Y]ou and crissy want to get together in all alone[sic].”
He then allegedly sent a follow-up text, saying, “Kinda lonely tonight I guess I have bad intentions.”
Scavo — who said Favre had eyed her “like a hanging slab of beef” — told her husband about the texts, according to the suit.
Joseph Scavo angrily phoned the grid great and “requested that he stop soliciting his wife for ‘bad intentions’ or to get together with her,” the suit says.
Favre didn’t like his pass being intercepted, the suit claims.
He “responded in an inappropriate manner and refused to apologize,” according to the papers.
The masseuses’ lawyer, David Jaroslawicz, added, “He essentially told [Joseph Scavo] to go away and, as a celebrity, he couldn’t be bothered with the little people.”
Scavo and O’Toole “were never again called to provide massage therapy for the Jets” after the incident, the suit says.
Scavo first complained to The Post about Favre’s alleged dirty deeds in October. She asked that her name be withheld at the time.
The suit says the women came forward amid reports that the team’s “locker room and training camp were apparently a hotbed of sexual harassment, sexism and inappropriate behavior.”
Former Jet sideline reporter Jenn Sterger allegedly had also been bombarded with lewd texts and voicemails from Favre.
And at the beginning of this season, Mexican TV reporter Ines Sainz complained about being made to feel “uncomfortable” over players’ salacious comments to her in the locker room.
Both Scavo and O’Toole cooperated with the NFL’s probe into Favre’s conduct toward Sterger, the lawyer said, and both were disgusted with the paltry $50,000 penalty the league handed down against the millionaire player for not cooperating with the league’s probe.
Sterger, who allegedly received explicit photos from Favre in another failed seduction bid, has also blasted the penalty and indicated that she, too, might sue.
“Clearly, they’re just as dissatisfied with the NFL’s decision as we are,” said her lawyer, Joseph Conway.
The masseuses’ suit also names the employee who coordinated the massage program, Lisa Ripi, as a defendant.
The suit quotes from texts Ripi allegedly sent Scavo in which she told the therapist her “husband is a complete a – -hole” and “you should have come to me.”
Scavo and O’Toole want their jobs back, and also want the team to revise its sexual-harassment policies.
“Unfortunately, the plaintiffs never reported the allegations to the Jets, either during or after the conclusion of their work. The case against the Jets is completely without merit, and we look forward to defending the matter in court, where we are confident that the Jets will prevail,” the Jets said in a statement.
Favre’s agent did not return a call.
