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A woman was fired after her braggart co-worker shared their sexts with colleagues, and now her former employer is hitting her up for $25,000 in legal fees, according to new court filings.
National Debt Relief LLC employee Jennifer Ricketts, 28, sent X-rated messages “including intimate images and videos” of herself to her flame Stephen Nazario last year — but the boastful beau shared the messages with four of their coworkers on Dec. 11, papers filed in Bronx civil court charge.
“I felt humiliated when it first happened,” Ricketts told The Post.
Ricketts — who worked as a retention specialist at the company — had sent the messages to Nazario on while she was on vacation in the Dominican Republic, “believing that he would demonstrate discretion; unfortunately, Nazario was not deserving of such trust,” the court papers claim.
Adding insult to injury, Ricketts was fired less than a week after a friend reported the incident to higher-ups — because the racy images she sent to Nazario violated the company’s sexual harassment policy, according to legal filings.
“I had just had a newborn baby and they fired me a week before Christmas,” Ricketts said.
So she sued NDR and Nazario in Bronx Supreme Court, but NDR argued that Ricketts, who began with the company in 2014, signed papers requiring her to work out disputes in arbitration rather than suing — and a judge sided with NDR and tossed the case last month, ordering both parties to hash it out themselves.
Ricketts didn’t press criminal charges against Nazario because it would be difficult to prove that he had malicious intent — as opposed to just sending them around to brag about his conquest — which is a requirement for prosecution under New York State’s revenge porn laws.
“I don’t know what his intention was, but I do feel part of that was bragging,” Ricketts said.
Now NDR is going after Ricketts — who pulled down a $42,000 salary at the company — for around $25,000, arguing she must pay their their legal fees for the court case, according to filings made on Nov. 14.
“It’s insane that they are trying to come after me for attorneys’ fees. You fired me. Where am I going to get the money from?” said Ricketts, who is working temp jobs while searching for full-time employment.
The company wouldn’t even grant her unemployment, but after they went to court over it, a judge to side with her, she said.
“I was the victim and they tried to hold unemployment against me,” she said. “At the end of the day unemployment runs out. And now I’m back at square one trying to find a good job.”
Ricketts’ lawyers say they plan to appeal the Bronx judge’s arbitration ruling, and a hearing is set for Monday.
Nazario and the four other employees he sent the messages to were eventually fired, a few weeks after Ricketts, her lawyers said.
Lawyers for NDR did not return a request for comment. Nazario did not respond to a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Gabrielle Fonrouge
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