A former waitress is feeling like a million bucks after getting a big money judgment against a sleazy former nightclub owner who sexually abused her.
A judicial hearing officer in Manhattan Supreme Court awarded Nicole Slama $1 million for the grotesque sexual abuse she endured back in 2007, when, she says, Quo co-owner Gary Malhotra fondled her and did cocaine off her shoulder before licking her neck.
“I am so relieved that this long battle has finally come to an end,” Slama told the Daily News. “It has been a long and emotional road.”
Slama had only been working at the now-shuttered W. 28th St. club for a short period of time when she had her disturbing run-in with Malhotra on Dec. 6, 2007.
That’s when the married lawyer told Slama he was starting a new club, and wanted to talk to her about working there, her suit said. He pushed her into a storage closet, “closed the door and stood with his body against the door so she could not exit,” the suit says.
She said he pulled out some cocaine and offered her some. She declined. He shook the bag, “Can I sniff this off your body?” he asked. “I want to sniff it off your a–. You have a great a–.”
He then grabbed her behind, and she pushed him off, crying “No!” the suit says.
“OK, so off your (breast) then,” he said, grabbing her chest, according to the suit.
She resisted, and he said, “OK, OK, off your shoulder then,” the suit says. “You have to let me because you work for me.”
He pinned her against the wall, slipped the strap of her tank top off her shoulder and then shook cocaine on it, the suit says.
“He then snorted the line off her shoulder and began licking her shoulder and neck,” the suit says. Slama “was trying to push him off the entire time, but he is much larger and overpowered her,” the suit says.
She was able to sneak out when he went to get a cigarette, the suit says.
Slama reported the nastiness to cops, who arrested Malhotra. He was convicted of sex abuse, harassment and forcible touching in 2009 and sentenced to five days of community service.
Slama, 30, filed a $3.5 million suit against the perv in 2010 for sexual harassment and mental anguish, but he was able to delay her case for years by claiming he was going to appeal the conviction. But he never filed an appeal, said Slama’s lawyer, Megan Goddard of Nesenoff & Miltenberg.
Slama won a default judgment against Malhotra in 2013, and on Thursday, Judicial Hearing Officer Ira Gammerman awarded her $1 million after a brief hearing.
Slama, who currently works as a restaurant manager in a Manhattan hotel, said she feels “relief that Malhotra was held responsible for what he did to me,” and “a sense of pride in knowing that I stood up for myself and other victims.”
“I hope that I will now be able to find some inner peace with the closure of this ugly chapter in my life,” she said.
But now she and Goddard have to try to collect the money from Malhotra. The 43-year-old moved to Florida after the suit was filed, but recently returned to New York, where records show he’s opened a law office in Lake Grove, L.I.
He declined to comment when The News told him about his $1 million bill.
Goddard said, “We will pursue the enforcement of this judgment with the same focus, dedication and determination with which we pursued the award.”
