She’s getting a huge payout — and so is her creepy boss.
A former employee of the city’s Department of Small Business Services was just awarded $2 million by a Manhattan jury after suing over six years of sexual harassment and discrimination she endured at the agency.
But the city is letting the manager she blamed for putting her through hell “retire” — and he’s in line for a hefty pension.
Michelle Tulino, 32, first filed her federal court suit against the agency and its Assistant Commissioner Shaazad Ali, 61, in 2015 — alleging he falsely bragged about sleeping with her, assaulted her, and then punished her when she spurned his advances.
In the suit, Tulino, of Brooklyn, claims Ali first told her when she was hired out of college in 2008 “that younger female employees were required to have affairs with male DSBS leaders if they wished to remain employed.”
When she said that was against her morals, he advised her she “would have to work twice as hard to remain employed” and “so her co-workers would not assume she advanced in the Agency because of sexual favors,” the suit alleged.
She took his advice and performed extra, unpaid work, even as she quickly worked her way up to executive director of the agency’s Business Assistance Corporation — but Ali informed Tulino that her colleagues were nevertheless calling her a “slut” who was sleeping her way to the top, the suit said.
Unbeknownst to Tulino at the time, Ali was himself falsely claiming to be having an affair with her, she alleged.
She claims he began “persistently contacting” Tulino by phone and email, but when she rejected his advances, he cornered her as she was walking to the bathroom, “aggressively pinned her against a walls … forced himself upon [Tulino] and attempted to kiss her.”
Two days after she told him she was going to file an internal complaint, she alleges he began “slapping himself” in the face and saying “I’m so stupid” — then tried to “physically impose himself on her” again.
Two days later, she said she was “demoted” while her colleagues filed a baseless complaint that she’s “received benefits for performing sexual favors” — and she ultimately was forced to resign because she could no longer “bear working there.”
On the witness stand, Ali denied the allegations against him — but admitted to sending Tulino poems and emails calling her his “special friend,” and that he shared unfounded “rumors” about the agency’s then-commissioner sleeping with female subordinates.
“This was lust and obsession, from a man who was a high-ranking official to a young woman at a first job,” her attorney Phillip Pizzuto said in his closing statement.
Last Thursday the jury awarded Tulino $1.5 million for emotional distress and another $500,000 for her retaliation claims — finding Ali and the city liable for creating a hostile work environment.
It found Ali was not guilty of battery over Tulino’s allegations that he assaulted her.
In a response, the city’s Law Department insisted that Ali’s conduct “while unprofessional, did not constitute sexual harassment and that the jury’s award is not justified,” and said it is considering challenging the decision.
DSBS said it investigated Tulino’s complaint when she was still at the company and found it was unsubstantiated — but during the trial, “communications” it didn’t know about emerged and Ali was relieved of his management duties on March 1 and is now retiring.
He’s been working for the city since 1980 and last year made around $159,000, according to city records from watchdog group the Empire Center.
A source confirmed that his pension is protected by state law. Based on his years of service and salary, he stands to clear $100,000 a year in retirement, according to the Empire Center’s pension calculator.
Ali didn’t return requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Carl Campanile