She went in for a cheeseburger and fries and ended up McPummeled at a Manhattan fast-food joint owned by polo-playing scion Bruce Colley.
Elizabeth Storelli says in a new lawsuit that workers at Colley’s McDonald’s at West 71st Street and Broadway failed to help her when she accidentally bumped into a woman in the crowded eatery and was severely beaten.
“I thought I was going to die,’’ Storelli, a 49-year-old nurse, told The Post.
Storelli said she was headed home from a bar, where she’d had a couple of glasses of wine with girlfriends, around 10:30 p.m. July 24, 2015, when she stopped at the Mickey D’s.
The Upper West Side joint is owned by the man who famously broke up Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s marriage to Kerry Kennedy and whose elderly mother was found murdered at his family’s Westchester County estate in November 2015.
“I hadn’t eaten a lot, so I went in there and ordered some fries and a cheeseburger,” Storelli recalled.
“There were a lot of people in there, and a girl bumped into me and things just escalated from there. She called me a ‘white b—h,’ and that’s when a guy came over and poured the soda over my head,” Storelli said.
“I was in shock. I did swear. I was like, ‘What the f–k?’
“The next thing I know, I saw a group of people coming toward me.”
Storelli said she fled the restaurant, but an unruly group of customers followed her outside, and the next thing she knew, “Once I got out of the McDonald’s, they had me down on the sidewalk, and guys and girls were just surrounding me and punching me on the head and kicking me.”
Not a single McDonald’s employee came to her aid, the woman said.
“There were probably three [McDonald’s workers] at the registers. I remember seeing a manager on the floor walking around,’’ Storelli said. “Nobody got involved at all. They were just watching.’’
Even a Manhattan Supreme Court justice who recently green lighted the woman’s 2016 suit said, “Once soda was poured on her head, defendants had a duty to take protective action.’’
A good Samaritan finally came to Storelli’s rescue and cradled her head until cops arrived.
Storelli suffered a concussion and broken rib in the attack.
Two women, Joselin Santos, 16, and Annie Figueros, 33, were charged with assault and harassment in the case. But they ended up with no criminal records, and their cases are sealed.
Storelli is suing franchise owner Colley for unspecified damages.
Her lawyer, Joseph Napoli, said the eatery had security protocols in place instructing employees on how to deal with violent incidents, but they weren’t followed.
Napoli said there is surveillance video from inside the eatery but that McDonald’s told him the cops took it, and he can’t get it from them.
Colley told The Post in an email, “Our biggest priority is always the safety and well-being of our customers and employees. Due to pending litigation it would be inappropriate for me to comment further.’’
No comments:
Post a Comment