Woman Sues Union Co. Dermatology Practice For Hostile Work Environment: Lawsuit

UNION COUNTY, NJ — A former medical assistant at Advanced Dermatology Mohs & Laser Surgery Center in Westfield has filed a lawsuit against the practice, and several of its employees, claiming that she was subjected to a "hostile work environment."

Samantha Sanchez, a Hispanic woman of Mexican descent, was employed by Advanced from July of 2017 to around Nov. of 2021 in various capacities, and most recently as director Sabatino Ciatti's medical assistant, according to the lawsuit.

She is now suing the practice, as well as Ciatti, nurse Gina LaGrande, and physician's assistant Rachel Cittone on the basis that she, as well as non-white patients, were treated unfairly due to their ethnicity and/or race.

During a period where Sanchez worked as Cittone's medical assistant, the lawsuit claims that Cittone treated Advanced's non-white patients, most of whom were of Hispanic or South Asian national origin or descent, worse than white patients.

After seeing a Hispanic or South Asian patient, Cittone would often say to other Advanced
employees, including Sanchez, that she “can’t understand these people,” “they shouldn’t
come to me” and “they should go somewhere else,” among other similar comments, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also claims that Cittone would use derogatory terms to refer to Hispanic and South Asian patients, such as “dumb,” “smelly” and “dirty.” Sanchez reported that she never once witnessed Cittone refer to or speak about white patients this way.

Around Jan. of 2019, Sanchez complained to Robyn O'Pacity, the office manager at Advanced that she was extremely uncomfortable working with Cittone because of the way she interacted with minority patients and her constant "discriminatory comments."

According to the lawsuit, O'Pacity — who was allegedly already aware of Cittone's behavior — told Sanchez that she should "just put [her] two weeks in."

Cittone's "inappropriate and discriminatory behavior" continued after this complaint, Sanchez reported.

In or around May of 2019, Sanchez eventually started working as an assistant under Ciatti — the medical director of Advanced. He is also a dermatological surgeon who has been practicing in Westfield since 1998.

While working under Ciatti, Sanchez claims she was also subjected to a hostile work environment at the hands of LaGrande, a registered nurse at Advanced.

According to the lawsuit, LaGrande would "frequently mimic a Hispanic accent to mock Sanchez and Norma Greer, another Advanced employee of Mexican descent." Sanchez never once saw LaGrande mimic an accent while speaking to a white employee, the suit states.

Sanchez claims that Ciatti witnessed LaGrande mocking her on a number of occasions but never once stopped LaGrande from doing it.

"In fact, Ciatti would usually just laugh when he saw LaGrande mimic a Hispanic accent to mock Sanchez," the lawsuit states.

Furthermore, the lawsuit states that both LaGrande and Ciatti would regularly refer to Sanchez as “AOC,” referencing the initials commonly used to refer to Hispanic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City.

"Sanchez does not in any way, shape or form resemble Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit claims that Ciatti would also regularly engage in racist rhetoric in the workplace, including making "highly offensive comments about Mexicans and Hispanics."

"Ciatti would regularly refer to Hispanic and Black people as 'animals' and would
frequently say to patients, in front of Sanchez, that Mexican migrants to the United States
were 'not good people,' but were 'drug dealers' and 'murderers,'" the lawsuit states.

Ciatti is also accused of saying that white people should not be punished for being "smarter" and "more hard working" than Black and Mexican people and should not be punished for or feel badly about slavery since it was the “normal thing to do those days.”

The lawsuit further states that Ciatti applied different, more lenient, standards for employee conduct and discipline to Advanced's white employees. Sanchez claims she was held to stricter standards and consequently was disciplined more frequently and severely than white employees.

For example, one day in or around the fall of 2021, according the lawsuit, Ciatti yelled at Sanchez after finding a suture discarded in a sharps disposal container — where needles and other sharps are disposed of — and said she should never dispose of a suture in this container.

Ciatti then ordered Sanchez to retrieve the suture from the sharps disposal container, which was filled with used needles.

"After finding out that it was actually Jana Alva, a white woman employed as a registered nurse at Advanced, who had disposed of the suture in the sharps disposal container, Ciatti laughed off the situation and told Alva that it was not a big deal and to just make sure that it did not happen again," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit outlines a number of other incidents where Ciatti had used "racist" and derogatory language in Sanchez's presence.

Around Nov. 30 of 2021 Sanchez sent an email to O'Pacity, informing her that she was "resigning from her employment with Advanced due to the racist work environment there."

The lawsuit claims that Advanced knew of its employees' creation of a hostile work environment but failed to take measures to stop it.

Sanchez claims she has suffered economic, physical and emotional harm due to the hostile work environment she was subjected to.

Sanchez is seeking compensation from the practice, as well as Ciatti, LaGrande and Cittone due to lost benefits, emotional distress damages and negative tax consequences that she has received from working at Advanced.

Sanchez is being represented by attorney Usmaan Sleemi of Parsippany.

Patch reached out to James Bucci of Genova Burns, the attorney representing Advanced Dermatology, several times for a comment but did not receive a response immediately.

Patch will continue to follow this story as more information is made available.

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