NEW TAMPA, Fla. – A lawsuit filed against a business located in Hillsborough County alleges sexual harassment and unfair termination.
Adib Nasr, 49, owns the Acropolis Greek Taverna restaurant on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in New Tampa and his company is being sued by two former female employees.
They allege aggressive sexual propositions by Nasr and claim he unfairly terminated one of them for not fulfilling his request for sexual favors. They filed suit in the Hillsborough County courts on November 9.
Nasr is also being sued by FS Restaurant Group owned by Fahim Malkeya, which claims Nasr bilked the company out of $250,000 when he attempted to sell them the Acropolis restaurant in September 2022. This buy-out agreement was established shortly after Nasr received the two former employees’ EEOC complaints about his sexual conduct in August.
The Free Press contacted Nasr’s wife, Stacy Esposito, who was once known as “Stacy Ann Jones” when the couple owned Papa Joe’s Auto Care in New Tampa.
Esposito served as the Acropolis Greek Taverna’s human resource manager. Asked about the sexual harassment charges against her husband, she stated the accusations were not true and the lawsuit was filed because one of the Plaintiffs in the case was terminated.
Esposito stated she was still married to Nasr although The Free Press discovered she had filed for a divorce in 2021.
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The Plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim that Esposito was aware of her husband’s sexual misconduct, but when asked to help, she only replied, “I know how he is.” The Plaintiffs claim the restaurant had no employee handbook or stated restrictions against sexual harassment.
The female employees’ strategic “Whistleblower” lawsuit reads like an “X” rated movie script when describing Nasr’s alleged remarks.
Nasr allegedly told one of the plaintiffs in July 2021 that “Anna” had quit her job “because I wouldn’t f**k her.” He allegedly remarked about young women employees’ rear ends, the way their clothes fit, and how “l like it tight.” The plaintiff claims Nasr told her she would one day be his wife, despite both being married. Nasr allegedly wanted to go home with the plaintiff, but she refused and requested that she be left alone. At one point in early February 2022, Nasr, after failed sexual advances, allegedly asked her, “Do I need to get rid of your husband?”
Nasr is accused of grabbing the plaintiff’s arm which she pulled away.
In December 2021 at a company Christmas party, Nasr allegedly told the plaintiff, “I’m going to f**k you tonight!” He allegedly then proclaimed, “I’m going to f**k all the girls tonight!”
The lawsuit states that in early 2022, Acropolis General Manager Jason Stiger witnessed Nasr sexually harassing several female employees. Allegedly seeing the fearful reactions of the employees, Stiger purportedly told Nasr that “he shouldn’t be doing that.” Esposito would not confirm to The Free Press that Stiger was or was not a witness to the suit’s allegations. Stiger could not be reached for comment.
According to the lawsuit, Esposito allegedly told the first plaintiff that Nasr wanted to fire Stiger but was legally advised against doing so, as Stiger had witnessed sexual harassment.
Nasr allegedly attempted one last time to be alone with the plaintiff, and when the attempt failed, he allegedly terminated her in early February 2022.
The second plaintiff claims in the suit that in November 2021, she was approached by Nasr with lewd comments like the first plaintiff, and that they became an everyday occurrence. The second plaintiff alleges that Nasr also grabbed her by the neck. Meanwhile, Nasr allegedly continued to frighten other young female employees whom he kissed in the plaintiff’s presence. The plaintiff claims the young females were afraid of Nasr.
The lawsuit states that Nasr became even more aggressive when he hired a 19-year-old female employee. The second plaintiff claims she witnessed him kissing her which caused her to cry. Nasr allegedly grabbed the young woman and tried to shove her hands in his pants. The young woman allegedly became hysterical because no one would help her. She allegedly resigned after Esposito refused to do anything about the incidents.
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Nasr is also accused of stomping around the restaurant declaring, “It’s my damn restaurant and I can do what I want to do!”
The second plaintiff claims in the suit that she resigned in February 2022 because “she could no longer endure the sexual harassment and humiliation.”
The Plaintiffs’ attorney is Ronald W. Fraley of The Fraley Law Firm in Tampa.
Fraley told The Free Press that restaurant owners who abuse their employees often close or sell their restaurants where the abuse occurred, then open elsewhere in the Greater Tampa area. He stated they can keep a low profile without bad press because the city has grown so large that people don’t know everybody like they once did.
“They fly under the radar,” he said. Fraley discovered that Esposito is the registered agent and manager of a new Wesley Chapel café named Café Zorba, which was opened in 2021.
Fraley, who specializes in sexual harassment, stated, “Low-income women that have very few choices or may have things in their background like abuse, drug addiction or work in the service economy, or divorced and have children – these men know it. But the women won’t come forward because they’re afraid they’ll be destroyed. The men impregnate these girls, they touch them, but they’re scared to come forward. I had my secretary talk to them to help them come forward, but they say how is this going to pay my bills this month? So they take the abuse from these guys. It’s quite sad to have some pig touching you. Some of the things these people have to go through…then they get fired, they get blackballed. This is happening on a daily basis, so these kinds of people need to be banned from doing business.”
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