#Butcher’s Daughter boss groped worker, asked for threesome at strip club: suit

A former barista at trendy Lower Manhattan restaurant The Butcher’s Daughter says she endured humiliating sexual harassment for three years — including her married supervisor propositioning her for a threesome at a strip club — then was fired for reporting the misconduct, according to a new lawsuit.

Azara Mulder-Sagefka was hired as a barista in January 2017 by supervisor and restaurant co-founder David Ochoa Rodriguez at the vegetarian chain’s Nolita location on Kenmare Street, the Manhattan Supreme Court filing states.

She said that Rodriguez and his brother Sebastian Ochoa, who is not named as a party, would only hire “pretty girls” whose qualifications they allegedly weighted with the phrase “I would f–k them,” the suit charges.

The brothers and other staffers asked Mulder-Sagefka about her sex life, commented on her behind and intentionally dropped items then asked her to pick them up, the filing states.

For two years, she repeatedly complained to contacts at The Butcher’s Daughter location in Los Angeles about Rodriguez and other staffers making crude remarks and groping her — but no one did anything and the intensity of the harassment allegedly escalated.

One night when Mulder-Sagefka was closing the restaurant, Rodriguez told her she had to stay for a meeting. He called at 11:30 p.m. and gave her directions to a strip club.

Once inside, Rodriguez, accompanied by an unnamed male employee, ordered her a drink then offered to buy her lap dances, which she declined. But Rodriguez persisted, sending a topless woman to massage Mulder-Sagefka’s shoulders — despite her repeated objections.

Rodriguez called her a “party-pooper” and asked what had happened to the “fun Azara,” the suit states.

When she told him she wanted to leave, he offered to get her a hotel room before asking her if she had ever had a “threesome.”

She reminded Rodriguez that he had a wife, to which he allegedly responded, “It’s not real and only for papers.”

When Mulder-Sagefka said she had to leave, Rodriguez allegedly threatened to fire her if she told anyone about the strip-club meeting.

The restaurant’s founder, Heather Tierney, who has opened four of her trademark vegetarian butcher shops, including locations in Venice, Calif., and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, met with Mulder-Sagefka about the disturbing conduct — allegedly promising to clean up the locker-room atmosphere, while Mulder-Sagefka took a leave of absence to deal with the emotional distress, the suit says.

But when she tried to return to work, she was told she no longer had a position, she alleges in the papers.

Mulder-Sagefka has accused Tierney and Rodriguez of discrimination, unlawful employment practices and wrongful termination and is seeking punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

Tierney said Rodriguez no longer works at the restaurant. She said she hadn’t yet read the lawsuit and couldn’t comment further at this time. Rodriguez couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.