Jersey Shore star Angelina Pivarnick filed a lawsuit against New York City and her FDNY supervisor on claims of sexual harassment, Us Weekly can confirm.
The 33-year-old MTV star, who has been employed as an emergency medical technician (EMT) in NYC since 2016, filed the complaint on Monday, September 16. She accused Lieutenant David Rudnitzky and Lieutenant Jonathan Schechter of misconduct, although only Schechter is named as a defendant.
According to documents obtained by Us, Pivarnick alleged that she was “subjected to a sexually hostile work environment by two of her supervisors” for more than a year. Both of her alleged harassers worked within the New York City Fire Department’s Bureau of Emergency Medical Services.
Pivarnick claimed she experienced “unwelcome sexual advances, degrading comments about her body, vulgar sexual comments [and] inappropriate questions about her private relationships” on a “repeated” basis, the document stated. In one instance, she was allegedly subjected to “groping of an intimate part of her body without her consent.”
The complaint also claimed that after Pivarnick submitted internal grievances over the alleged harassment, she faced “retaliation” from her station’s leadership.
Nicholas Paolucci, the director of public affairs and press secretary for the FDNY, confirmed to Us that the agency’s “law department will review the case.”
Pivarnick rose to fame after briefly appearing on the Jersey Shore’s debut season in 2009. She returned to the reality series for its sophomore run, only to depart for a second time after butting heads with her costars.
The TV personality would later appear on Couples Therapy in 2011. She earned a certificate from the Training Institute for Medical Emergencies and Rescue in Staten Island in early 2015 in her pursuit of a career as an EMT.
Pivarnick returned to her Jersey Shore roots for its spinoff, Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, in 2018. She previously told Us how “nervous” she was to reappear on the show, primarily due to her former tension with Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino.
“I wanted to go and make amends because I really thought that there was a lot of unfinished business with me and the cast and the roommates,” she told Us in May 2018. “I just felt like there was a lot on my chest that I needed to get off, and it was eating up and away at me for all those years.”
