New York Daily News

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- BY MOLLY CRANE-NEWMAN

The manager of a swanky skin care shop in Sutton Place kept a nude photo of a female worker mistakenly texted to him — and then passed it along to a supervisor who cruelly made fun of the woman’s misfired message, a newly filed lawsuit alleges.

Mark Morta got the intimate picture of Sydney Puppo in November 2019, when Morta was manager of Blue Mercury on First Ave. near E. 57th St., the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges.

Puppo says the photo was intended for her boyfriend,

Puppo “immediatel­y advised Morta that it was an accident and that it was not meant for him,” says the suit.

He kept it anyway and sent it to Puppo’s supervisor, the suit claims.

“To make matters much worse,” Puppo’s lawyer Eric Baum told the Daily News, “[Puppo] was then subjected to sexual harassment.

She has brought a case against Blue Mercury to redress the harm it has caused her and to ensure that the company creates policies and training to prevent this type of conduct from happening to anyone else.”

Puppo’s supervisor, Natalia Norman — who’s also being sued — was particular­ly amused by the embarrassi­ng missive, the suit claims. Norman ridiculed Puppo and engaged in a monthslong campaign of abuse and gender discrimina­tion and harassment, the lawsuit charges.

“The conduct was unwanted, harmful and offensive,” the suit claims. “When Ms. Puppo refused to engage with Ms. Norman, Ms. Norman retaliated by writing Ms. Puppo up.”

Rather than taking action against the behavior, company higherups ignored Puppo’s sexual harassment claims, leading to her resignatio­n, the suit claims.

Puppo is also suing the company’s CEO and founder, Marla Beck, who sold Blue Mercury to Macy’s in 2016 for $210 million, according to Forbes.

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