14 DAY TRIAL // A woman accused of hiding rats in her underwear and pantyhose is suing her employer for unspecified damages in a case of libel.
55-year-old American Airlines stewardess Louann Giambattista, from Long Beach, is suing because her co-workers allegedly affected her performance in a work environment.
The New York Post reported that Giambattista was accused of bringing the rats on the plane during her work hours.
“Everybody has pets — she has her pets at home, not at work. [...] She’s not a nut. They’re making her out to be a nut,” her attorney Stephen Morelli argues.
One of the witnesses, a pilot allegedly noticed something in her pocket during a layover on Feb. 26, 2012.
“He saw a bulge in [her] pocket” and saw “what he thought was a live pet,” the lawsuit alleges.
Another flight attendant has also claimed that she “believed [Giambattista] fed her pet rats.” She informed security and Giambattista was met by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Florida.
While she was searched and the procedure yielded no results, her passport was flagged. She was also subjected to intense questioning and she had her luggage checked for over an hour.
For a year, she was stopped at every check-in point whenever she was boarding, “making it nearly impossible for [her] to report to work.”
She allegedly developed “debilitating anxiety” and started experiencing the sings of post-traumatic stress disorder after being mistreated.
”There was no reason for it. [...] People say, ‘There must have been a reason,’ but there is none,” Giambattista alleges.
She has stressed that the claims were false, but did not deny that she was an animal lover.
“She’s got a lot of different pets. [...] She had the rat — it died,” he attorney says.