A Los Angeles man was sued in L.A. Superior Court Wednesday for allegedly grabbing a male dishwasher’s butt in the Staples Center elevator while dressed as the L.A. Kings’ mascot, Bailey, an anthropomorphized lion. In the lawsuit, Maso Griffin says Tim Smith, who appears as Bailey for the hockey franchise’s home games, groped him in 2016. Griffin says after he complained about the incident, he was temporarily taken off the work schedule by his superior at Levy Restaurants Inc., whose director of human resources happened to be mascot Tim Smith’s wife.
Griffin says he was also subjected to razzing from coworkers about the incident and ultimately fired nearly two weeks later. From the Los Angeles Daily News:
During an elevator ride at the arena last Dec. 8, Smith, while dressed in the “Bailey” costume, put one hand on one of Griffin’s shoulders and used his other hand to squeeze the plaintiff’s buttocks, the suit alleges. Griffin was angry and was about to say something to Smith when a co-worker of the plaintiff — who was also in the elevator — said, “That’s the HR lady’s husband,” according to the complaint. Griffin complained the next day to Melissa Smith, who became angered, and the plaintiff was “taken off the schedule for a time,” the suit states. Griffin was subjected to embarrassing derogatory remarks by co-workers when he returned, including “Was his hand furry?,” the suit states. The suit states that Griffin was fired during a meeting with Melissa Smith on Dec. 21 and he believes he lost his job for complaining about her husband’s alleged conduct.
Griffin brought the suit seeking unspecified damages against Smith, the Kings owner Anschutz Entertainment Group Inc., Levy Restaurants Inc., as well as another food service company at Staples Center.
Hmmm… there’s a lot going on here. I’m going to leave it to the good people at the Los Angeles Superior Court to get to the bottom of this.
