Agent of fear
2 models join lawsuit
HE LURED them into his lair by preaching the word of Jesus.
A pair of young models are joining a lawsuit against agent Aristeo Tengco, casting him as a Bible-thumping perv who stiffed them out of jobs and repeatedly groped them.
“He would just always have to have his hands on me,” said Kayla Hill, a 17-year-old beauty from South Carolina. “I think he’s disgusting. I hate him. I want him to rot in hell.” Hill and Jessica Lee, 17, came forward days after 19 -yea r-old aspiring model Hayden
Holt filed a suit claiming Tengco forced her to live under “relentless and severe and pervasive sex-based hostility and fear.”
Like Holt, Hill and Lee lived with Tengco inside the upper East Side apartment he runs as a boardinghouse for models. “He controlled ever y thing I wore. He con - trolled every aspect of my life,” said Lee, a sweetfaced stunner from West Virginia.
“And there was the groping. When we’d hug, it was very sexual. He’d run his hands down my back and grab my butt.”
Tengco, who runs Emmanuel New York Models, declined to comment.
His law yer Kenneth Rubinstein said he’s already dug up emails that call into question Holt’s claims.
“If these other women are joining what we think is a frivolous lawsuit, that’s obviously up to them, but we’ll have to see what they say and evaluate it independently,” Rubinstein said.
The young beauties said they moved into Tengco’s pad after getting seduced by his purported righteousness.
“He fed me a lot of speeches about Christianity and how he was really going to help me grow in my faith,” Lee said.
She moved into T Tengco’s Second A Ave. apartmentin early December. H Hill arrived later in th the month.
The girls’ mothers ga gave the green light af after Tengco allayed the their fears by emphasizin sizing his strong Christian faith.
For both girls, the abuse started almost immediately.
Lee said Tengco forced her to stay inside the apartment when she wasn’t on castings and even withheld her food money.
“He wanted to know what you were doing, where you were, who you were talking to every hour of the day,” Lee said. “I felt trapped.”
Both girls moved out in February. They returned to the city with their mothers last week to collect their belongings.
In all, the aspiring models’ parents estimated they each paid Tengco about $6,000 for lodging, food, coaching and clothes.
“In the name of Jesus, he’s taking advantage of young girls and taking away a part of their innocence,” said Lee’s mom, Pamela Thrasher.
rschapiro@nydailynews.com