New York Firefighter Accuses Chief of Raping Her as a ‘Birthday Present’

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 lavatory.

“Had enjoyable final night time,” 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 an alternative, the fireplace 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 12 months. She requested a jury trial and unspecified damages from Kelly, Seier, and the Wantagh Fireplace Division, in line with a civil lawsuit obtained by The Every day Beast.

(The Every day Beast will not be 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 advised The Every day Beast. “She was brutally assaulted by two individuals who she thought of associates, and never solely colleagues, however her superiors. That has made her rethink whether or not she’ll ever once more be capable 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 line with Mitev, “liked being a firefighter and liked being a part of what she thought was a unit.” Nevertheless, Kelly and Seier “thought of her, actually, a disposable sexual vessel,” Mitev stated, including that his shopper has been unable to return to her volunteer place for the reason that 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 in search of remark. Officers with the Wantagh FD didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Thursday. No prison fees have been filed towards both man.

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The allegations towards 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 have a good time Seier’s birthday, in line with the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in Nassau County Supreme Courtroom.

When she received there, the lady was “instantly served and repeatedly overserved with a number of alcoholic drinks” by Kelly and Seier, the lawsuit states. They each “inspired” her to knock again numerous completely different liquors, together with Malibu rum and a spirit referred to as “Black Demise,” it says, occurring 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 line 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 night time 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 social gathering and telling everybody to depart.” That’s when, in line with the lawsuit, she “started to appreciate that the Defendants’ intentions had been to sexually assault her in her intoxicated state, as she wouldn’t be capable to consent or battle off their sexual advances.”

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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 towards her will.”

“Come on,” Seier saved repeating, trapping the lady between himself and Kelly as she tried to depart, in line with the lawsuit. As she struggled to get away, the lads knowledgeable her that there have been no safety cameras in that a part of the firehouse.

“You need to see this large 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 ultimately blacking out, she got here to within the firehouse lavatory, in line 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 similar time, Defendant Seier compelled the [woman] to carry out fellatio on him,” it goes on, alleging that Seier digitally penetrated the lady towards her will, as properly. Kelly ultimately 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 received house round 4 a.m., she says she received 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.

She has since continued to endure bodily ache, in addition to “extreme psychological hurt and despair,” in line with the lawsuit.

“It’s grotesque, it’s barbaric, it’s callous, it’s merely unconscionable,” Mitev, the lady’s lawyer, advised 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 bop round behind, and there was no try to settle this. We needed to give [the Wantagh Fire Department] discover of declare underneath the regulation for this municipality. They knew about this.”

Mitev stated the lady has taken an indefinite go away of absence, spurred by inaction on the a part of the Wantagh FD. In March of final 12 months, he stated he received a letter from the fireplace district’s legal professional, who claimed the division had severed ties with each Kelly and Seier. Nevertheless, the lady advised 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 protected 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 12 months, an assistant fireplace chief in Utah was sentenced to jail after pleading responsible to raping a feminine firefighter underneath his command. Additionally final 12 months, as The Every day Beast first reported, a West Virginia firefighter was investigated by the FBI on accusations of raping an underage woman in his firehouse, in the end 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. A number of 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 “protecting all choices open” in contemplating pursuing prison fees. Within the meantime, Mitev stated she filed the civil swimsuit “to be able to vindicate not solely her rights, however these of others who’ve sadly suffered related fates by the hands of sexual oppressors.”

“She really is somebody that exemplifies the spirit of making an attempt to assist others,” stated Mitev, “and it’s simply grotesquely unlucky that this occurred to her.”

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