Photograph Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Every day Beast/Getty/Wantagh Fireplace Dept.
A volunteer firefighter within the New York Metropolis suburbs says she was plied with alcohol and served up as a “birthday current” to a rating officer by the division chief, after which each males violently raped her in a firehouse rest room.
“Had enjoyable final evening,” then-Wantagh Fireplace Division Chief Kenneth Kelly Jr. allegedly texted the sufferer the subsequent morning. “However, bear in mind, that’s between you me and Joe solely eternally.”
As a substitute, the hearth medic—who's educated as a firefighter and an EMT—is now suing 51-year-old Kelly and 28-year-old Wantagh FD Engine 7 Captain Josef Seier, accusing the pair of bodily and sexually assaulting her final yr. She requested a jury trial and unspecified damages from Kelly, Seier, and the Wantagh Fireplace Division, in accordance to a civil lawsuit obtained by The Every day Beast.
(The Every day Beast isn't revealing the alleged sufferer’s title.)
Vesselin Mitev, the lady’s lawyer, stated on Thursday that the “grotesque” assault has “ruined her life.”
“She’s had these extraordinary emotions of humiliation, disgrace, she will’t sleep,” Mitev instructed The Every day Beast. “She was brutally assaulted by two individuals who she thought-about pals, and never solely colleagues, however her superiors. That has made her rethink whether or not she’ll ever once more have the ability to do the factor she most loved doing, serving to others.”
The lady, who's in her mid-20s and has a day job as a doctor’s assistant on Lengthy Island, in accordance with Mitev, “liked being a firefighter and liked being a part of what she thought was a unit.” Nevertheless, Kelly and Seier “thought-about her, actually, a disposable sexual vessel,” Mitev stated, including that his shopper has been unable to return to her volunteer place because the incident.
Reached by cellphone by The Every day Beast on Thursday, Kelly declined to touch upon the accusations. Seier didn't reply to voicemails and emails searching for remark. Officers with the Wantagh FD didn't reply to a request for touch upon Thursday. No prison costs have been filed in opposition to both man.
The allegations in opposition to Kelly and Seier stem from the night of Jan. 14, 2022, when the lady arrived at Wantagh FD Station #4 round 9:30 for a gathering to rejoice Seier's birthday, in accordance with the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in Nassau County Supreme Court docket.
When she acquired there, the lady was “instantly served and constantly overserved with a number of alcoholic drinks” by Kelly and Seier, the lawsuit states. They each “inspired” her to knock again numerous totally different liquors, together with Malibu rum and a spirit known as “Black Loss of life,” it says, happening to allege fireplace district officers had been beforehand warned that male firefighters in Wantagh preying on intoxicated feminine members was “a recurrent ongoing drawback.”
On this occasion, Kelly and Seier—the lady’s direct supervisor—had a premeditated plan to get her drunk and sexually assault her, in accordance with the lawsuit.
All through the night, whereas the lady was seated at a bar within the fireplace station’s firm room, Seier saved his hand on her thigh and regularly leaned into her, the swimsuit claims. Because the evening wore on, Kelly allegedly began making lewd feedback to the lady.
At roughly 2 a.m., the lady says she heard Kelly say to Seier “that they had been going to ‘moist her like a sponge,’” adopted by Kelly “shutting down the celebration and telling everybody to depart.” That’s when, in accordance with the lawsuit, she “started to comprehend that the Defendants' intentions had been to sexually assault her in her intoxicated state, as she wouldn't have the ability to consent or combat off their sexual advances.”
When the firehouse cleared out, the lady discovered herself alone on the on-site bar with Kelly and Seier, her swimsuit says. That’s when Seier allegedly “started forcing himself upon” the lady, “kissing her in opposition to her will.”
“Come on,” Seier saved repeating, trapping the lady between himself and Kelly as she tried to depart, in accordance with the lawsuit. As she struggled to get away, the boys knowledgeable her that there have been no safety cameras in that a part of the firehouse.
“You wish to see this huge dick?” Seier allegedly requested the lady.
“We all know you prefer it,” the swimsuit claims Kelly stated, “after which reminded [her] that it was… Seier's birthday and that she was to be his ‘current’ all whereas the [woman] was trapped between each [Kelly and Seier] who had been visibly sexually aroused.”
The lady started to slide out and in of consciousness, and after finally blacking out, she got here to within the firehouse rest room, in accordance with the lawsuit. With the door locked, Kelly and Seier eliminated the lady’s garments earlier than Kelly bent her over the sink and raped her, “unprotected and with out her consent,” the swimsuit continues.
“On the identical time, Defendant Seier compelled the [woman] to carry out fellatio on him,” it goes on, alleging that Seier digitally penetrated the lady in opposition to her will, as nicely. Kelly finally left, leaving Seier to proceed the assault, choking the lady within the firehouse officer’s room, the place she claims he raped her, too.
When the lady acquired residence round 4 a.m., she says she acquired a textual content message from Kelly, who pressured her to maintain the assault quiet. This was “a transparent admission” to what had occurred, the lawsuit states.
Nassau County Supreme Court docket
She has since continued to endure bodily ache, in addition to “extreme psychological hurt and melancholy,” in accordance with the lawsuit.
“It's grotesque, it's barbaric, it's callous, it's merely unconscionable,” Mitev, the lady’s lawyer, instructed The Every day Beast. “After which they tried to whitewash the entire thing, saying she didn’t promptly report it—that was what they tried to bounce round behind, and there was no try to settle this. We needed to give [the Wantagh Fire Department] discover of declare beneath the legislation for this municipality. They knew about this.”
Mitev stated the lady has taken an indefinite depart of absence, spurred by inaction on the a part of the Wantagh FD. In March of final yr, he stated he acquired a letter from the hearth district’s lawyer, who claimed the division had severed ties with each Kelly and Seier. Nevertheless, the lady instructed Mitev that the pair “had been proper again on [Fire Department] property weeks later, hanging out and joking round as if nothing occurred.”
“She knew it wasn’t secure anymore,” Mitev stated.
Kelly’s title has been faraway from a division roster on the Wantagh FD web site; Seier stays listed because the captain of Engine 7.
Firefighters are, by and enormous, a selfless and honorable cohort. However there are occasional exceptions. Final yr, an assistant fireplace chief in Utah was sentenced to jail after pleading responsible to raping a feminine firefighter beneath his command. Additionally final yr, as The Every day Beast first reported, a West Virginia firefighter was investigated by the FBI on accusations of raping an underage lady in his firehouse, finally receiving a 14-year sentence. In 2018, an Illinois fireplace captain was convicted of drugging and raping a probationary worker, going as far as to videotape the brutal assault. Just a few years earlier than that, greater than a dozen FDNY firefighters and officers had been accused of gang-raping a civilian in a Bronx firehouse.
The Wantagh fireplace medic is “conserving all choices open” in contemplating pursuing prison costs. Within the meantime, Mitev stated she filed the civil swimsuit “so as to vindicate not solely her rights, however these of others who've sadly suffered comparable fates by the hands of sexual oppressors.”
“She really is somebody that exemplifies the spirit of attempting to assist others,” stated Mitev, “and it's simply grotesquely unlucky that this occurred to her.”