When the power of persuasion failed to secure jobs, four Teamsters union members opted for the persuasion of power.
Four members of Teamsters Local 25 in Boston are in court this week facing charges of threatening “Top Chef” celebrity host Padma Lakshmi and show producers outside a local restaurant in 2014 where they were filming.
The production crew say the union members blocked vehicles, slashed tires and threatened to use physical violence.
“They swarmed her vehicle and surrounded it. They were furious,” producer Ellie Carbajal testified in court, Page Six reported, citing Deadline.
“That’s the pretty one. We want to smash her face in,” Carbajal recounted one of the men saying of Lakshmi, his face inches away from the car window.
Lakshmi is expected to testify in court Thursday about being “paralyzed with fear,” according to prosecutors, who say the Teamsters tried to extort jobs for “services not needed, not wanted and that others were already hired to perform.”
Local teamsters facing extortion charges in Top Chef case arriving to federal court #wcvb pic.twitter.com/oImGTUOiAx
— Katie Thompson (@KThompsonNews) August 1, 2017
On trial are John Fidler, Daniel Redmond, Robert Cafarelli and Michael Ross — the men have pleaded not guilty to the extortion charges.
The Teamsters are seen in the video below calling Carbajal a “c*unt” and a “f**king towel-head” as she records them.
Teamsters racist attack on Top Chef producer caught on camerahttps://t.co/5jh6ZjIKas via @MailOnline
— misscassie909🐝 (@MissCassie909) August 3, 2017
“They got in my face,” Carbajal said in court as she struggled to fight back tears, according to Deadline. “I was scared. I couldn’t believe they were doing this. They were grown men.”
Deadline reported that the local’s former secretary-treasurer, Mark Harrington, has already pleaded guilty to the same charges. He was sentenced to six months of home confinement, two years of probation and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and restitution of $24,000.
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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