Main Line Woman Sues Irish Pub Molly Maguire’s After Alleged Swinger Sex Request
Molly Maguire’s is an Irish pub with locations in Downingtown, Lansdale, and Phoenixville. It’s the kind of place that hosts Quizzo and cover bands and that’s still featuring espresso martinis. And now a 48-year-old Exton woman is suing Molly Maguire’s for sexual harassment.
Lesley Fetzer was hired as the director of sales and marketing for the pubs in July 2012, earning a salary of $31,200 plus a 5-percent commission on all banquet sales.
According to a suit that Fetzer filed in Philadelphia’s federal court on Wednesday, her problems at Molly Maguire’s began in September 2012 when another director at the company allegedly grabbed her buttocks during a group photo at an event that she had secured.
Then, claims Fetzer, one of the owners told her that he needed her help in targeting a new and expanding client base: swingers.
From the suit: “Plaintiff Fetzer [was] told that the groups tend to be closed and suspicious” so she “would be required to accompany him to a few swinger’s party [sic] to gain the trust of the attendees.”
Fetzer, who has since resigned from Molly Maguire’s, also maintains that she was told that she would need to pretend to be the owner’s wife and “to likewise act the part.”
Other allegations in the suit include a suggestive text message from one of the owners and the claim that an owner grabbed Fetzer’s notebook during a meeting and then slid it back after drawing male genitalia on one of the pages.
“This is a middle aged woman who left a job to take what she thought was her dream job, and it turned out to be a nightmare,” says Peter Barbieri, Fetzer’s attorney. The restaurant management did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment.
UPDATE: An attorney for Molly Maguire’s says the allegations in the suit are “without merit and denied in their entirety” and calls the suit “absurd and defamatory.”
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