Wantagh woman rips masseuses' suit vs. Jets

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - Lisa Ripi, named in a lawsuit by two Long Island massage therapists suing Brett Favre and the Jets for sexual harassment, is firing back.

Nassau County residents Christina Scavo and Shannon O'Toole claim they lost their part-time jobs with the Jets after reporting the 2008 instances of alleged sexual harassment. They are seeking unspecified damages from Favre, the Jets and Ripi, a Wantagh resident and an independent contractor who coordinates massage therapy for Jets players and hired Scavo and O'Toole.

The suit was filed Monday in Supreme Court in Manhattan.

"The lawsuit initiated by Ms. Scavo and Ms. O'Toole is clearly just an attempt by them to jump on the bandwagon in the hopes of getting a financial windfall," Ripi said Thursday in a statement released through her Uniondale-based attorney, Kenneth Wilensky.

"Their behavior in not telling the Jets or me about the alleged incident for over two years, and only after the October media frenzy concerning the NFL and Brett Favre, speaks volumes about Ms. Scavo's and Ms. O'Toole's character and true motives.

"I did absolutely nothing wrong and the lawsuit against me is completely baseless. In light of the fact that a lawsuit is pending, I cannot make any other comment at this time."

The lawsuit, which the Jets said is "without merit," says the two women worked for years at the Jets' training camp at Hofstra and "for various individual players and performed outcalls / outsource treatments at other locations, including players' homes.''

According to the lawsuit, after Scavo and an unidentified colleague gave massages at the training camp in 2008, Favre sent the colleague a text message saying, "Brett here you and crissy want to get together I'm all alone.''

The suit says when Scavo told her husband, Joseph, about the texts, he tried to get Favre to apologize. The suit also states that Favre responded inappropriately and refused to apologize or take any other action.