San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Dentist is no stranger to battles with employers
Doc alleges harassment at UT Health, has filed other complaints in more states
At least three times in his fledgling career as a dentist, Dr. Francesco Sebastiani has filed discrimination complaints against former employers.
The 35-year-old first alleged he faced sexual harassment and gender discrimination during his oral and maxillofacial surgery residency in New York. The allegations — including that a supervisor he had a fling with later stalked and threatened to kill him, his brother and mother with a muscle relaxant if he didn’t resume the relationship — landed him in the pages of a New York tabloid in 2019.
Sebastiani then came to San Antonio to train in the residency program at the UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry. Now, he alleges in a federal lawsuit that he was harassed by colleagues there — including one who allegedly texted him an image of a sex toy — but that the complaints were not taken seriously. He was terminated from the program before he could complete it.
That case against UT Health and Bexar County-owned University Health, which the lawsuit says was the program’s host hospital and Sebastiani’s employer, is scheduled to go to trial April 8 in federal court in San Antonio. University Health disputes it was his employer, saying it’s only the “paymaster” for graduate dental education agreements with residents.
After his stint in San Antonio, Sebastiani moved to Florida, where a company that operates dental practices hired him. But his employment lasted less than a year. He alleged in a 2022 arbitration complaint that the company fired him in retaliation for bringing the lawsuits in San Antonio and New York. The company countered that he’d inflated his credentials.
Ricardo Cedillo, one of Sebastiani’s lawyers in the San Antonio case, declined to comment during a break in a pretrial hearing before U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia this month. Sebastiani wasn’t there.
It couldn’t be determined what Sebastiani has been doing since he was fired in Florida. His Florida driver’s license shows he lives in Jacksonville. He’s licensed to practice dentistry in at least four states — Texas, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania — but the top results of an internet search for him turned up about as many links to his legal cases as to biographical references.
Here’s what they show.
Sebastiani graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, according to an online biography.
He’s been licensed to practice dentistry in Pennsylvania since 2015, and his clinical interests include reconstructive surgery, implants, jaw and face trauma,
and jaw surgery. According to the bio, he’s “the primary author on book chapters on topics ranging from oral sedation to infection control,” but the books aren’t identified.
In July 2015, about two months after being licensed in Pennsylvania, Sebastiani became chief resident in an oral surgery program at Brooklyn Hospital Center, he says in court papers. Not long after, he began an anesthesia rotation at the hospital under the supervision of anesthesiologist Dr. Pik Lee, 48.
Sebastiani and Lee became involved in a “voluntary sexual/ romantic relationship,” Matthew Walters, her attorney, wrote in a Jan. 8 letter to a federal court in Brooklyn where Sebastiani has sued Lee in one action and both her and the hospital in another.
Walters said the relationship continued until at least April 2017, though Sebastiani says it ended in December 2016.
He alleges Lee then began sending “harassing” text messages to “coerce” him into resuming their relationship.
“If you don’t want to be with me I’m going to come over and kill you,” she wrote, he says in court papers. He says he watched her through the peephole in his apartment door as she pulled out a syringe and said, “I’ll kill you if you’re with someone else, how would you like my dead body on your doorstep?”
She allegedly threatened to kill his mother and brother with succinylcholine, a muscle relaxant used during surgery.
Sebastiani obtained an order of protection against her in February 2018 and another for him and his family that July, he says. He also alleges she was arrested for violating the orders.
Lee has denied the allegations, though she acknowledged in a court document that orders of protection were issued and that she had been arrested.
In December 2018, Sebastiani sued her in New York state court for assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Lee later removed the case to federal court, where it has been pending for almost five years. The assault and battery claim relates to allegations that Lee “poked and prodded” Sebastiani in his
“buttocks and genitals” while he was operating. Her lawyer has sought to have that claim tossed.
‘Pretextual investigations’
Sebastiani has another pending case in the same federal court against the Brooklyn Hospital Center, Lee and Dr. Harry Dym, head of the residency, over what allegedly occurred at the hospital. He’s suing them for sexual harassment and gender discrimination, a hostile work environment and retaliation in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and New York state law.
Sebastiani says he reported the alleged assault to Dym, who disregarded his complaint. Sebastiani says he also requested to be transferred to another program to avoid contact with Lee, but Dym indicated he “would personally see to it that his career was destroyed” if a transfer occurred. Thus, Sebastiani adds, he was “forced to remain under Dr. Lee’s supervision, subject to regular sexual assault and threats of violence.”
Sebastiani says that instead of investigating the formal complaint he made in December 2017, the hospital’s human resources department retaliated “by perpetrating their own campaign of harassment against him based on false accusations and pretextual investigations.”
Sebastiani also says the hospital made “false and malicious statements” about him to another residency program he sought to join, resulting in an offer being rescinded. He doesn’t know the content of the statements but suspects they were related to allegations he “engaged in fraudulent billing practices and/or worked outside the scope of his practice” while at the hospital.
The hospital wants Sebastiani’s suit tossed for a variety of reasons, according to a January letter from its attorney, Barbara Hoey, who did not respond to a request for comment. In it, she told the court that Lee worked as a contractor, not a hospital employee, and never served as Sebastiani’s supervisor.
The hospital knew nothing of the affair until December 2017, well after it was over, Hoey wrote. That month it received an anonymous tip — allegedly from Lee, it later learned — that Sebastiani was renting his hospital-owned apartment on Airbnb in violation of the lease agreement.
During its investigation into the tip, Hoey said, the hospital discovered evidence that Sebastiani had “performed improper and unauthorized dental procedures on Hospital patients … and received illicit cash payments for those procedures, unbeknownst to the Hospital.” Lee’s lawyer said in his letter to the court that Sebastiani was running an “unsanctioned oral surgery clinic for cash using hospital facilities.”
The hospital suspended Sebastiani amid the investigation, and he resigned that month, Walters’ and Hoey’s letters indicate.
Starting ‘anew’
Sebastiani sought to continue his training in dental surgery and “began anew,” becoming a resident at UT Health’s School of Dentistry. His San Antonio lawsuit doesn’t specify when he joined the program but it’s thought to be sometime in 2018.
But his alleged troubles in Brooklyn followed him, leading to a 2020 lawsuit against the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (now UT Health San Antonio); Dr. William Henrich, UT Health San Antonio’s longtime president, who died March 14 from complications related to a medical procedure; Dr. Peter Loomer, the dental school’s dean; Dr. David E. Perez, program director of the oral and maxillofacial surgery department; and University Health. The judge subsequently dismissed the claims against the three doctors.
Sebastiani alleges a chief resident in the program, Dr. Nicole Hernandez — who happened to be a close friend of Lee — initiated “a campaign of harassment” that included “threats to take (Sebastiani’s) patients, starting rumors, and accusing (him) of mishandling a case where an error was made by another resident.”
“Dr. Hernandez made plain she was retaliating for the damage to her friend’s career,” Sebastiani alleges.
Hernandez, who works in Tampa, Fla., said in an email that she was unable to comment. She is not a defendant in the lawsuit.
He accuses her of coining the nickname “Keep it tight Franco” — allegedly a reference to Sebastiani’s sexual harassment complaint in New York — which was adopted by others in the program. He also alleges she texted him an image of a sex toy “to violate Plaintiff with.” Another text she allegedly sent says, “Wtf. Sebastiani finally got arrested for molestation and sedating ppl without a license.”
UT Health and University Health are fighting to keep out of the trial a collection of screenshots of texts thought to have been sent to residents. Judge Garcia referred to them as “the inappropriate messages” at a March 6 pretrial conference.
Under rules of evidence, the actual or original messages, not screenshots, should have been preserved, John Ramsey, an assistant state attorney general representing UT Health, told Garcia. There’s also no date or time listed to indicate when the texts were sent, he said.
“It would also matter if (the texts were sent) after he had already been dismissed from the
program or if it was really early in the program, or after he had already been going through these proceedings,” Ramsey said. “So the date is highly relevant.”
Cedillo, one of Sebastiani’s lawyers, argued the texts should be seen by jurors “so they can get the full flavor of what Dr. Sebastiani was subjected to and … decide what they want to do about it.”
Dismissed
Sebastiani says he endured other harassment and discrimination from colleagues but that his complaints weren’t taken seriously and that he was retaliated against for making them.
He says he passed all academic courses and never received a final grade of D, F or unsatisfactory in any coursework.
But Perez, director of the residency program, said in November that Sebastiani had “many problems associated with his duties as a resident and was counseled many times.” They included failing to attend the initial surgery he was scheduled for, missing patient meetings and being unaware while on call that a patient had died in the intensive care unit.
It was only after Sebastiani’s dismissal from the program that Perez said he learned residents had been exchanging “sexually oriented content amongst themselves.”
Perez’s declaration was included with UT Health’s motion to dismiss all claims. It succeeded in getting one of the counts against it and the others against its doctors dismissed.
“The organization is cooperating fully with the legal process and is confident that the truth will prevail,” UT Health said in a statement. “We remain focused on our mission and serving our community with integrity.”
University Health succeeded in getting two claims dismissed. The lawsuit says University Health was involved in the residency program as the host hospital and Sebastiani’s employer. A University Health spokeswoman said it has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation but referred to court papers that say UT Health is “solely responsible for the discipline or termination of
the Resident.”
It added that it never received complaints from Sebastiani about harassment and retaliation until April 20, 2020, four days after he was dismissed from the program. He alleges he endured sex discrimination and was retaliated against for opposing discrimination in Brooklyn and complaining about harassment during his stint in San Antonio.
He seeks unspecified damages for past and future lost earnings and pain and suffering, as well as punitive damages. He also seeks to be reinstated to the program.
Florida job
After his dismissal from the program, Sebastiani headed to Florida.
He became a licensed dentist in Florida on June 17, 2020, and less than two months later Professional Dental Alliance of Florida PLLC — an operator of dental practices around the state — hired him. He lasted less than nine months.
Dental Alliance alleged in a federal lawsuit filed in 2022 in Ohio that it canned Sebastiani after discovering he had falsely held himself out as a specialist in oral and maxillofacial surgery when he applied.
In the Brooklyn and San Antonio court filings, Dental Alliance said in its complaint, Sebastiani “concedes that he did not complete either residency program.” So it terminated him “for cause” April 16, 2021.
It also said it learned that during Sebastiani’s employment he performed dental and oral surgery procedures requiring the administration of moderate sedation without the proper permit.
He responded early in 2022 by filing a complaint against Dental Alliance with the American Arbitration Association, alleging it retaliated against him for bringing the discrimination lawsuits in Brooklyn and San Antonio.
In his arbitration complaint, Sebastiani said he never told Dental Alliance he was a specialist.
He brought his retaliation complaint under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and sought unspecified damages for lost income, damage to his “reputation, confidence and self-esteem” and for “stress, anxiety and emotional distress.”
Dental Alliance countered that Sebastiani’s claim was “without legal merit” but had to be litigated, so it filed suit in Ohio. It sought a court judgment that the dispute had to be litigated in federal or state court.
Sebastiani never filed an answer to the suit, so Dental Alliance dismissed the case in April 2022.
The outcome of Sebastiani’s arbitration complaint couldn’t be determined. Two lawyers for Dental Alliance didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“Dr. Hernandez made
plain she was retaliating for the damage to her friend’s career.”
Dr. Francesco Sebastiani, in federal
lawsuit against UT Health
Dr. Francesco Sebastiani had “many problems associated with his duties as a resident and was counseled many
times.”
Dr. David E. Perez, program director of UT Health’s oral and maxillofacial surgery department, in
court documents