An ex-receptionist says a New Jersey dental office is a hotbed of drug and alcohol use where her boss took hard liquor shots out of dental cups and threw a booklet at her for blowing the whistle, a new lawsuit alleges.
Nadia Zevallos says she was driven out of the American Dental Center in Union after complaining about the rampant party culture promoted by her supervisor Lilly Almeida, according to her Union County lawsuit filed Thursday.
The 39-year-old Belleville, New Jersey, woman says she saw Almeida drink hard liquor out of dental cups, eat marijuana jello shots and pot brownies while on the job, the court papers allege.
Almeida also allegedly pushed these edibles and drinks on other employees who partook in the partying, including a dental assistant who handled patients, the court documents say.
Zevallos was also offered the drugs and alcohol but passed, the court filings say.
Almeida was able to get away with allegedly inappropriate behavior because of her “flirtatious and possibly romantic relationship” with dentist David Paltac, the suit alleges.
Almeida retaliated when Zevallos complained to office manager Cathleen Peters by screaming at her in front of patients and staff and throwing an accounting booklet at her, the court papers claim.
Almeida then slammed the booklet on Zevallos’ desk, violently shook her chair and assigned her extra work that week, the court documents say.
Almedia also gave Zevallos shifts she knew it would be hard for her to make, the lawsuit alleges.
In a meeting the pair had with Paltac and Peters on Feb. 3, the dentist said, “there can be an empty bottle of whisky in my garbage can, but if there is no video of me drinking it, no one can prove that the whiskey bottle is mine,” the court documents allege.
During the meeting Peters told Zevallos they don’t fire people but “we just make sure your life is miserable so you leave on your own,” the suit claims.
Zevallos quit that day.
Two days later, another employee called Zevallos saying “everyone in the office is upset at you.” The same person told Zevallose that another coworker will “find you and kick your ass!” the court papers say.
The lawsuit says to imagine a workplace as wild as the one depicted in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Then, imagine that workplace was not on Wall Street — but was actually a dental practice on Main Street, where unsuspecting patients were handled by staff and treated by dentists who participated in this illicit and immoral behavior.”
The suit also names American Dental Center’s parent company Garden State Dental Management as a defendant in the lawsuit.
“Instead of applauding our client for reporting this unlawful behavior, the company forced her from her role,” Zevallos’ lawyer Peter Valenzano said. “We stand shoulder to shoulder with our client in exposing the dangerous and unlawful behavior at Garden State Dental.”
Almeida, Peters, Paltac and the office did not immediately return requests for comment.