Naomi Campbell is sued in New York City, again, by a former employee

Tuesday, November 14th 2006, 8:23 pm

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) Naomi Campbell, who has been accused of hitting several of her employees, was sued Tuesday by a former maid who says the British catwalker viciously assaulted her while calling her a dumb Romanian.

Gaby Gibson filed the lawsuit on the eve of Campbell's scheduled Manhattan Criminal Court appearance on charges of hitting another employee. Gibson's court papers say Campbell, far from being a supermodel, is a ``violent super-bigot.''

Campbell, 35, ``subjected Gibson to repeated discriminatory assaults based on her national origin'' by saying, ``You are not in the Third World any more, stupid,'' and ``Romanians are not usually as dumb as you,'' Gibson's court papers say.

The lawsuit says other remarks Campbell made to Gibson, who speaks with a foreign accent, included, ``When will you learn English?'' and ``Are all the women in Romania as pathetic as you?''

Gibson, who worked for Campbell from November 2005 through January 2006, says the model hit her on Janusary 17th, called her names and threatened to have her arrested for theft after being unable to find a pair of jeans.

``As Gibson was bent over searching the closet for the Stella McCartney jeans, Campbell either kicked or punched the back of Gibson's head during the assault while yelling discriminatory comments at Gibson,'' the court papers say.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, was Gibson's second against Campbell. In June, Gibson accused Campbell of employment discrimination, civil assault and civil battery.

Gibson's lawyer, Lambros Y. Lambrou, said the second lawsuit was needed to add other defendants and allegations. The new defendants include four companies owned by Campbell and her former publicist, Amanda Silverman.

Silverman ``knowingly and intentionally disseminated false and defamatory statements against Gibson worldwide'' and hurt her reputation, court papers say.

Lambrou also said Campbell has not taken her anger issues seriously. He said she has been seen wearing a T-shirt that says ``NAOMI HIT ME'' on the front and ``I LOVE IT'' on the back, this, as criminal assault charges are pending against her.

Campbell's lawyer, David Breitbart, said Gibson's first lawsuit was automatically dismissed because Lambrou failed to file papers within the legal time limit.

He denied Gibson's claims and said he would reply at the proper time in appropriate fashion. He also said he believed Campbell's employees were obliged by contract to take complaints against the model to arbitration and keep their interactions confidential.

Silverman, the publicist, said she had no comment on the lawsuit.

Campbell's Wednesday court date on an assault charge stems from a similar incident: She was unable to find a pair of jeans and blamed the maid.

In that incident, Campbell was accused of hitting Ana Scolavino in the back of the head with a cell phone in the model's Manhattan apartment after saying she stole the missing jeans.

Scolavino was treated for a head injury after the incident.

Breitbart has said he was considering a plea offer from the Manhattan district attorney's office in that case. He would not say what the offer was.

Campbell, who is from London, faces up to seven years in prison and deportation if convicted after a trial on that charge.