![]() With velveted walls, bottle service, pounding music, and the chance to ogle celebrity clientele-which, prior to the pandemic, reportedly included the likes of Busta Rhymes, Travis Scott, Ice-T, and Rob Kardashian-Sapphire New York proved exceedingly popular with tourists and locals alike, some of whom were willing to spend a small fortune in a single night. ![]() The younger sister to Sapphire’s original Las Vegas location, the New York joint was marketed upon opening as a “high-end… R-rated night club” by franchise managing partner Peter Feinstein.įeinstein, who is named as a defendant in the suit, once described Sapphire as a place for a man “to escape and get away for a few hours, and then go back home and be a dad and a good husband.” Through Kimmel, who noted that his client is not involved in the management of Sapphire’s clubs, Feinstein declined to comment on the case. Its East 60th Street location, which occupies the spot once held by Scores, the legendary club of Hustlers infamy, was the first of the three Sapphire sites to open in 2009. (“Elena” is a pseudonym.) “There’s no lights, there is no liquor, there is no party.”īetween its three locations, the club purports to swallow up more than 10,000 square feet of city real estate. Not a party to the ongoing legal case, she spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity since she still works in the industry. “Without these women, there is no club,” said Elena, a woman who spent eight years working security at Sapphire. “The safety, well-being and happiness of dancers is of foremost importance to the club.” The Crown Jewel “There are many measures in place to ensure the safety of everyone at the Club, including a clear and conspicuous complaint and/or reporting procedure allowing for anonymous complaints,” Kimmel’s statement read. Given Sapphire claims on its website that it employs “8,000 lovely ladies,” the firm believes that there could be more than 1,000 other people out there who could qualify as victims of the club’s alleged misconduct. In that time, at least a dozen other former dancers have reached out to Joseph and Norinsberg, they said. It is unclear when a definitive ruling on the issue will be handed down. Joseph and Norinsberg have repeatedly opposed this, arguing that a federal law enacted last year protects their suit from forced arbitration. Since the lawsuit’s filing, Kimmel and his team have filed multiple motions attempting to compel the case into arbitration, a path that would keep the suit out of court and the public eye. ![]() “We are confident the truth will come to light through litigation, and that Sapphire will be held fully accountable for their unlawful and abhorrent conduct,” they added. Joseph and Norinsberg have disputed Kimmel’s response, saying their investigation had revealed the club’s “grave indifference to the safety and well-being” of its dancers. “Sapphire will vigorously defend against these false, frivolous and defamatory allegations,” Kimmel added. He asserted that the club has “strictly enforced” policies in place against drugs and prostitution, and that any allegations that ownership or management knew about, much less condoned, any illegal activity “is completely fabricated.” Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily BeastĪn attorney representing Sapphire, Jeff Kimmel, called the suit “a litany of false allegations solely designed to garner publicity” in a statement to The Daily Beast. “It was the most evil place I could imagine being in,” O’Sullivan said. Some, like O’Sullivan, crumbled under the pressure, with her mental health deteriorating to the point of collapse. If a performer resisted, she risked “retaliation, through threats, intimidation and physical assault”-if she wasn’t fired or frozen out first. Meanwhile, it alleges, club management turned a blind eye as its hosts “behaved like Gods”-manipulating dancers with impunity, allegedly pushing them to take drugs, drink to excess, and prostitute themselves. Their complaint claims that, fueled “by greed and the unseemly promise of making ‘every man’s fantasies come true,’” Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club created a toxic work environment in which dancers were coerced into performing “any sexual act a customer desired, for a price.” In June 2022, she was one of two former dancers named as plaintiffs in a $25 million class action suit filed against the club and its owners by the labor attorneys Jon Norinsberg and Bennitta Joseph. She lasted less than a year at Sapphire before she quit in the throes of what she described to The Daily Beast as a “full mental breakdown” that, according to her lawsuit, ultimately left her hospitalized. “I was in pieces,” O’Sullivan recalled, adding that the encounter left her in tears. Only then did he round on her, “visibly irate,” as the complaint puts it, and start yelling. ![]() But first, Gino, one of the male employees at Sapphire known as a club “host,” apologized to the customer.
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