Ex-waitress sues Capital Grille over bathroom video camera

PROVIDENCE — A Cumberland woman is suing the owners of The Capital Grille, alleging that they cultivated and condoned an atmosphere in the restaurant chain that permits sexual harassment and illegal videotaping of female employees using the bathroom.

Meaghan Oliveira filed suit this month in U.S. District Court, accusing Orlando, Florida-based Capital Grille Holdings Inc. and GMRI Inc., doing business as The Capital Grille, of violating state and federal civil-rights laws by allowing employment discrimination based on sex and creating a hostile work environment.

The lawsuit stems from a Jan. 20, 2018, incident in which Oliveira discovered the cellphone that another server at the fine-dining establishment was using to videotape her as she used the communal employee bathroom.

Oliveira, who was pregnant at the time, played back the video that had just been recorded and saw herself with her pants down.

According to the suit, she showed the video to the restaurant’s assistant manager, Bobby Silva, and together they watched 26 minutes of footage that captured waiter Marco Northup-Jones positioning the cellphone and remotely directing the recording from his Apple Watch. The video also captured images of a third employee, Erich Mendanbach, using the bathroom.

Silva then called the general manager, Chris Phillips, to ask if they should contact the police, to which he responded no and said he would come to the restaurant, according to the allegations.

Oliveira recorded the video on her phone, fearing that the original would be erased, the suit says.

Phillips, in turn, contacted Ken Osgood, the director of operations for the Capital Grille Northeast Region, who also instructed that no one call the police, the suit says.

Oliveira and Mendanbach, who was informed of the recording, were asked to leave Silva’s office and Northup-Jones was brought in before being sent home with his phone, the suit says.

Oliveira and her husband, Zachary, who also worked at the restaurant at the time, took the matter to the Providence police, who charged Northup-Jones with two counts of video voyeurism and one of disorderly conduct.

Court records show that Northup-Jones, who no longer works at the restaurant, pleaded no contest to the video voyeurism charges in March and received two years’ probation. The disorderly conduct count was dismissed. He was ordered not to contact Oliveira.

The suit alleges that another female employee previously complained to the supervisors about illicit recording by Northup-Jones and that, again, no action was taken. A female working at a Boston site with a similar layout raised similar complaints.

Oliveira’s lawyer, Amato A. DeLuca, observed Tuesday that The Capital Grille long had a tradition of hiring only men, creating a culture often difficult for women to navigate.

“I thought it was important to bring the suit because it personifies some of the things that have been going on about how women are treated in the workplace, “ DeLuca said.

“No one should have to put up with that,” he said. “It makes you feel unsafe, something as invasive as this.”

Oliveira, who no longer works for the restaurant, is seeking unspecified damages. A spokeswoman for The Capital Grille did not immediately respond to a request for comment.