Lawsuit: Gossip Gentlemen's Club in Melville prostituted dancers, leading to sexual assaults, trafficking

A former exotic dancer turned attorney has sued the ownership and management of a Melville strip club, alleging that women were trafficked to customers and forced to perform sex acts in locked and soundproofed rooms under the threat of termination and blacklisting if they refused.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in New York Supreme Court by Christine DeMaria, accuses Gossip Gentlemen’s Club and Lounge of facilitating sexual assaults on dancers by high-paying customers in private VIP rooms, despite the venue's public "no touching" rules.

The suit contends that DeMaria repeatedly refused to engage in sex acts, in spite of pressure by Gossip management, other dancers and affluent customers — at least one of whom sexually assaulted her during a private dance.

'Just part of the job'

DeMaria alleges that she was fired after reporting the unsafe working conditions to management and then was blacklisted from working at other clubs.

"I was told, over and over, that this was just part of the job," DeMaria said in a statement. "It is not. I did not consent to being assaulted because I danced for a living. No one does. This case is about saying out loud what should never have been in question. Our bodies are not the price of employment. I will continue to fight until dancers are safe."

The suit states claims of sexual harassment, human trafficking, gender discrimination, hostile work environment, violations of New York State's Human Rights Law, fraud, unlawful wage deductions and whistleblower retaliation, and names Gossip owner Brian Rosenberg, senior manager Spiro Anastasiadis and seven other managers, dancers or bouncers. The lawsuit does not specify damages.

Rosenberg, a well-known Long Island promoter, did not respond to multiple requests for comment while Anastasiadis, reached by phone, declined to comment. 

DeMaria filed similar lawsuits against two other Manhattan-based strip clubs that she previously worked at where she contends she was sexually assaulted while onstage, bitten above her left breast, choked with a belt and fired for reporting a rape, court records show. Those lawsuits are pending.

Raised in New Jersey, DeMaria said she survived childhood sex trafficking at the age of 15 and began stripping in 2014, her attorney said.

DeMaria said she began working at Gossip in 2016 and quickly discovered the venue, which advertises itself as the "hidden gem of the nightlife scene," was not what it appeared.

For example, dancers, including DeMaria, were charged nightly nonrefundable "house fees," ranging from $40 to $100, for the opportunity to work, along with mandatory tips to the DJ, "house mom," managers and floor workers, the lawsuit says.

Dancers, she said, were also pressured to drink alcohol — DeMaria doesn't drink — to reduce their inhibitions with inebriated customers, who frequently became violent and belligerent.

And despite laws prohibiting customers from groping dancers, Gossip, DeMaria said, pressured women to engage in prostitution, often in soundproofed VIP basement rooms that bouncers locked from the outside.

Dangerous conditions

"It is against the law to sexually assault people who work in strip clubs," said Megan Goddard, DeMaria's attorney. "These women deserve to be safe at work. They deserve protection, not pressure to prostitute themselves or keep quiet about violence just to keep their jobs."

Early in DeMaria's tenure, she said a manager pushed her into a VIP room with a high-spending customer where she witnessed a co-worker being coerced into performing oral sex and then physically assaulted for refusing to engage in a sex act, the suit states. 

"Exiting a room early meant being penalized," the suit states, indicating that owners and managers made explicit guarantees of sex inside private rooms. "Refusing a customer meant being replaced. Staying meant risking everything."

Other times, the sex acts occurred out in the open, the suit states.

On multiple occasions, DeMaria said dancers or adult film stars that were invited to perform at Gossip performed oral sex or other prohibited sex acts on customers or on other performers while on the center stage of the club. 

In January 2022, with Rosenberg now serving as the club's sole owner, Gossip added two new VIP rooms — the Red Room and the White Room — that were reserved for "high-rollers," the suit states.

But to access the rooms, clients were shuttled through the locker room where dancers changed and were frequently undressed, documents show. On one occasion, DeMaria said a customer walked into the locker area unattended and began filming her.

Rosenberg, she said, would regularly position himself outside the VIP rooms, facilitating credit card transactions for sex acts, the suit states.

In March 2022, DeMaria said a VIP room client sexually assaulted her, while on other occasions she was physically pressured to perform sex acts on customers by both management and other dancers, the suit states. She refused.

DeMaria said she reported the conditions to management and ownership but that her complaints were ignored. Management, she said, eventually used her complaints as a pretext to terminate DeMaria from the job and blacklist her from other positions.

"I was told there were ‘rules’ and security to keep dancers safe, but in reality, I was trafficked and sexually assaulted at work because they encouraged it and made money off of it," DeMaria said. "When I refused to prostitute myself and reported what was happening, I was retaliated against, pushed out, and blacklisted from the industry. I want them held accountable so no dancer is ever told that assault is just part of the job."

A new life

After leaving the life of exotic dancing behind, DeMaria completed her bachelor's degree, graduated from New York Law School and passed the bar exam in July. 

Last year, DeMaria founded the nonprofit Sex Workers in Transition Compassion Home. SWITCH provides assistance to dancers, sex workers and trafficking victims, helping them transition to other careers.

In 2023, she received the Walentas Family Foundations' David Prize. The $200,000 award is given annually to five "visionary" New Yorkers.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.