GIRLS GONE TRIAL’D
All-gal jury vs. man accused of harassing ex
A Polish beauty claims that her jealous financier ex-boyfriend ruined her career and she’s banking on a Manhattan jury of her peers — six women — to get justice.
The all-female panel begins hearing testimony Monday in the civil case pitting former software saleswoman Marta Billeci against her handsome ex-lover, Taye Famm, an employee of George Soros.
Billeci, 44, says she was living the American dream, earning $110,000 a year, when in January 2011, she met Famm, a 41-year-old VietnameseAmerican with a $240,000 job. The Manhattan couple was soon jetting off for romantic getaways to the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
But their relationship went south by spring and Billeci broke up with Famm in May 2011, according to her Manhattan Supreme Court suit.
Famm didn’t take it well, Billeci says. He pursued her for the next year — both with a picture of his crotch and an invitation to the swanky Hamptons eatery Georgica, according to her court papers.
When that didn’t work, Famm started stalking Billeci on the dating site Match.com under the name OrgyMan, she claims in documents.
Billeci continued to rebuff Famm, at which point he threatened to “screw her over,” warning that he knew “how to use the system,” she says in her suit.
In June 2013, Famm told a judge that Billeci had called his newborn child a “yellow rat bastard’’ — and secured a restraining order against her, court papers show. Billeci’s lawyer says her remark was taken “out of context” and she was referencing the name of a clothing store.
She was arrested for telephoning Famm shortly after he received the restraining order, but says she called him only in response to a message he had sent her.
Billeci, a Poland native who graduated with a master’s degree from Fordham University, spent two nights in jail and lost her job, the court papers state.
Her lawyer, Romeo Salta, said his client is looking for “vindication’’ — plus $250,000 for emotional damages including anxiety and depression.
The lawyer chuckled when asked about securing an all-female jury in the largely he-said/ she-said case.
He said the “very educated’’ panel will see through Famm.
Billeci wants to “show the public how an order of protection can be abused and used as a sword instead of the shield it’s supposed to be,” Salta said.
And Famm’s lawyer, David Tessler, said he is confident the female jurors will be “fair” to his client and see Billeci as a “smart woman . . . who brought this on herself.”
He denied the claims in Billeci’s suit and said Famm is considering a $500,000 countersuit if her lawsuit fails.
“There’s no proof that she was injured,” Tessler said of Billeci, adding that his expert will say her “emotional damages are likely exaggerated . . . or manifestations of a pre-existing disorder of anxiety.”
Famm is now married with two children and working as a software consultant, according to his lawyer.
“He wants to put this unfortunate, brief romance behind him,” Tessler said.
The trial is expected to take two days.