The Narragansett Times - Climate of homophobia cited in lawsuit

NARRAGANSETT – The climate of homophobia and hate was hot as the summer sun on Steve Storti’s last day of work as manager of the Town Beach.

Last August, his bosses found out Storti, of Narragansett, was gay. They fired him on the spot for his sexual orientation after allegedly drumming up bogus accusations that the 51-year-old Town Beach manager sexually assaulted, sexually harassed or molested a male employee. They then allegedly accused him of stealing money from the beach operation.

Those are just a few of the claims in a lawsuit filed last week in Rhode Island Superior Court, Providence, against the town of Narragansett, Parks and Recreation Director Barry Fontaine and finance director Robert Uyttebroek along with the estate of late town manager Maurice J. Loontjens Jr.

Earlier this year, Storti won a Rhode Island Labor Board settlement against the town for upaid wages and unpaid over-time.

The suit claimed that on Aug. 5, 2006, town officials, with a police officer in tow, fired Storti and threatened to have him arrested.

Fontaine, a Cranston resident then in his first year as director of the town’s parks and recreation department, and others allegedly allowed beach employees to create and sing “sexually explicit, hateful, homophobic and outrageous lyrics characterizing (Storti) as a ‘faggot,’ who was sexually interested in ‘big butts’ and boys.”

The song, the suit alleged, was broadcast over town radio equipment and heard by employees, beach patrons and the public.

Additionally, town officials accused Storti of theft, accusations that were never validated by police.

Officials then told employees that Storti had been terminated for the three sexually-related allegations, which the suit claimed they knew to be false.

The suit, being handled by labor attorney Lynette Labinger of Providence, said the firing was part of a climate of hate that Fontaine brought with him when he began work after stints with parks and recreation departments in Cranston and North Providence.

Storti also filed a notice of right to sue with the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights in mid-July.

The Superior Court lawsuit alleged Fontaine, “in the presence and hearing of (Storti), ex-pressed hatred and distain towards homosexuals, women, Jews and persons of Asian origin.”

The firing and his treatment at the hands of town officials forced Storti to be “ostracized, held up to public ridicule, hatred and contempt in the community, to his great personal injury and in injury to his reputation.”

The broadcast of the homophobic song maligned Storti and caused his “emotional and physical injury.”

When town officials falsely informed police that, after his termination, Storti stole, or was suspected of stealing, town beach money, he was interrogated by Narragansett police investigators, which further caused harm.

The suit alleged that officials had no proof any money was missing and that the statements were made “negligently, reck-lessly and or maliciously” to cover up the alleged illegal firing.

“As a direct result of the actions and statements of the defendants, (Storti) suffered substantial injury, including economic loss, and loss of earning capacity, severe emotional injury, physical injury, injury to his reputation within his personal and professional communities, invasion of his privacy, disclosure of private facts and portrayal in a false light, personal humiliation, embarrassment and distress.”

According to the suit, Storti, who began working for the town in the early 1980s driving a beacher cleaner under Ralph Coppa and returned four years ago under the leadership of Andy Notta, has no other remedy but to sue and is seeking a jury trial in which punitive damages may be awarded.

In the suit, Storti is asking for equitable relief, not limited to reinstatement of employment, restoration of all lost wages, and the value of lost fringe benefits, including interest. He is seeking compensatory and punitive damages and interest against all of the defendants, jointly and individually, as allowed by law.

In additional to asking for further relief the court finds proper, Storti is asking for legal fees and costs associated with the suit.

Storti v. Town of Narragansett, Estate of Maurice J. Lootjens Jr., and Barry Fontaine, Recreation Director

Count 1 – Rhode Island Fair Employment Practices Act vio-lation in discriminating against Storti on the basis of sex and sexual orientation.

Count 2 – Rhode Island Civil Rights Act violation in discrimi-nating against him in employ-ment on the basis of sex.

Count 3 – Defamation viola-tion of Storti through slander and libel for defamatory words spoken and broadcast.

Count 4 – Rhode Island Right to Privacy Act violation of Stortu’s right to be secure from unreasonable publicity of his private life and violation of that right by putting him in a false light before the public.

Count 5 – Intentional infliction of emotional distress violation by acting in extreme and outra-geous ways, causing Storti se-vere emotional distress as well as physical injury.