Judge tosses sex harassment suit against Trenton
TRENTON» Roberto Perez, the brother of Trenton mayoral candidate Paul Perez, alleged some pretty awful things about his boss.
In a lawsuit filed in November 2015, Roberto Perez, who worked as a repairman at Trenton WaterWorks (TWW), claimed his supervisor, Joseph Alessi, repeatedly sexually harassed him, including coming onto him during a fishing trip.
But the lawsuit was dismissed on Tuesday, records show, allowing Alessi to have vindication.
“All the wrongdoing that he threw in the paper about me being gay, sexual harassment, it was all wrong, all lies,” Alessi said Thursday in a phone interview. “It was thrown out.”
Alessi, a watermeter repair supervisor, has worked at TWW for 29 years. He said an investigation was launched into the sexual harassment allegations by then-Public Works Director Luis Mollinedo.
“The director and everybody did their investigation and therewas no findings of anything Roberto said,” Alessi said. “They interviewed everybody in that water department and they all said Roberto was nuts and it’s all false accusations.”
The supervisor said Roberto Perez, who began working in 2012, made up the claims as he started to get in trouble atwork.
“The water department didn’t do nothing wrong,” Alessi insisted. “This guy was a menace to society out there in the field dealing with the customers. Every day, there were customer complaints. When people get in trouble, they make anything up.”
Roberto Perez’s attorney, Patrick Whalen, did not return a message seeking comment.
Alessi also had a notable confrontation with Paul Perez shortly before the 2014 election.
The candidate, whowas the runner-up in the 2014 race, went to the Trenton Water Works building to pay his bill and ended up in an employee-only break room with his brother’s supervisor.
“He’s a hotheaded,” Alessi said of the mayoral candidate. “He cornered me in that break room and went atme. I was sitting there buying a soda and theywere campaigning at the water department. He said, ‘I’m going to become mayor and make things better around here.’”
Alessi said he questioned that assertion.
“I told him ‘Your brother is here terrorizing everybody, lying and making false accusations. Your brother is totally out of control and you’re running for mayor.’ He then got mad,” Alessi said.
Alessi said he is “afraid of revenge” if Paul Perez is elected mayor.
Paul Perez declined comment when reached by phone on Thursday.
In 2015, Perez said he thought the encounter with Alessi was a “setup” and said his brother had since relocated to Puerto Rico to study music.
Asked if he believed the allegations his brother made were true, Paul Perez said at the time, “I don’t have any facts to base it on because I wasn’t there. It happened between them two.”
“I can tell you that I was a witness to Alessi making anti-gay, anti-minority-type statements when I was at the Water Works,” he said. “My brother just wanted to work, but this guy for some reason constantly was on his back.”
Roberto Perez, who worked on his brother’s campaign, was ultimately fired by the city in July 2014 for failing to perform his duties, his attorney previously said.
Roberto Perez first landed the job because he worked on former convicted Mayor Tony Mack’s campaign. When Mack assumed office, he made sure to give a job to Roberto Perez, sources said with intimate knowledge of the situation.
As for Alessi, he says people still mock him about the allegations in the lawsuit.
“I’ve been with my girlfriend for 19 years,” he said. “I’m a Catholic person and I have a kid with my girlfriend and this is wrong what he did tome. That’s defamation of character what he did tome. I just want my name cleared.”