SOCIAL SMEAR JOB

Gal: Jilted jerk & wife harassed me, got me fired

A COLUMBIA University professor who shot down a married Missouri financier’s sexual come-ons became the target of online mudslinging after his wife found out and blamed her, a new lawsuit charges.

Kristin Barbato, 45, says she was subjected to a relentless onslaught of hate-filled emails and Instagram posts by both James Giacin and his wife, Melinda (pictured below, right), for two years — to the point that she needed to get a court order of protection. Melinda sent the Instagram posts accusing Barbato of being a hussy to her and her co-workers at the New York Power Authority and Edison Energy, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

“What kind of woman quotes the Bible on Instagram and just days later admits to having an intimate relationship with a man she knew had a wife and 4 children at home waiting for him to return from NYC,” Melinda Giacin wrote in one post.

“Messing with married men will get you in trouble Kristin!” the wife wrote in another post.

Barbato said that the power authority fired her from her sixfigure job in November 2016 after the Instagram adultery comments. She was axed from another $100,000 gig at Edison in June 2017 after another post.

Barbato (below, far left) says in her lawsuit that she never had sex with Melinda’s husband because she learned he was married.

Her lawsuit details how she and James Giacin met at the New York Athletic Club in June 2015 while he was in the city for business.

James, who didn’t wear his wedding ring, asked her out to dinner. During the meal, he ’fessed up to being married, but claimed he was getting a divorce, Barbato said. She ended any potential romance then and there.

“It is a vast understatement to say that Mr. Giacin was not happy about this,” the lawsuit says. The frisky financier peppered her with emails and calls — and even chased her down a street to change her mind, Barbato says.

His wife eventually saw his steady stream of texts to Barbato and went on the warpath, the lawsuit says.

James told his wife that Barbato had actually been stalking him, according to the lawsuit.

The flood of emails from Melinda began, including threats that she would come from her St. Louis home to New York to confront Barbato.

James also took cheap shots at Barbato in emails.

“Do all your ugly dresses look the same or is our wardrobe so limited that you wear the same dress to all boxing events?” James wrote in one. James eventually pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct violation for his unwanted contact with Barbato, court papers say. Neither James nor Melinda Giacin responded to requests for comment.

The lawsuit accuses the couple of libeling Barbato and seeks $3 million.