Brett Favre sued by Christina Scavo, Shannon O'Toole for sexual harassment

Jan 4, 2011

Brett Favre was hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit Monday from massage therapists Christina Scavo and Shannon O'Toole, just days after the conclusion of an NFL investigation into lewd text messages and explicit pictures allegedly sent to sideline reporter Jenn Sterger when she and Favre were both on the New York Jets payroll.

The Minnesota Vikings quarterback on Sunday announced his retirement (again) from professional football, after not playing in the Vikings' game against the Detroit Lions.

Scavo and O'Toole allege that while they were working for the Jets during training camp in 2008, Favre sent text messages to a fellow massage therapist, hinting at a threesome with Scavo and saying he was "lonely" and had "bad intentions." They also allege that a Jets coordinator told one of the women in October she and the others should keep their mouths shut, and that they would never work for the Jets again. The lawsuit was filed Monday in New York against Favre, the Jets and Lisa Ripi, the woman who coordinated massage therapists during training camp.

The Favre-Sterger investigation resulted only in a $50,000 fine against the $16-million-a-year quarterback for failing to play nice with the league during the probe -- a penalty that had Leo Sterger, Jenn's dad, "absolutely furious."
"I better not meet that guy down a dark alley," papa Sterger told Radar Online on Friday, adding that his daughter felt vindicated and was doing well. And that he thought the fine was a "complete joke."

Scavo's husband approached Favre after the "bad intentions" texts were sent, telling him to back off, with the quarterback responding "inappropriately" and refusing to apologize, the suit alleges. O'Toole and Scavo were not called back to work for the Jets after Favre was confronted, the suit says.

Also cited are texts allegedly sent by Ripi to Scavo in October (when the Sterger scandal broke), which said in part, referring to Favre, "For sure feel horrible that u had to go thru that w a pervert ... however I truly with u wldvd came forward at the time it happened ... you sureley wldve gotten the treatment you were looking for in the moment. He was wrong on all counts ... and we cldve helped you a lot more at that time."

"i've been up there 13 yrs without anything that happened to me on tmz ... cuz it was hanndled internally the way it shd be," read another alleged Ripi text. "And ur husband shlve repsected the fact that the jets wldvd ttakecare of it. All this nonsense is unecessary. He is what he is ... and I won't take that back," the message said, apparently referring at the end to Scavo's husband, whom Ripi had previously called the unprintable equivalent of a jerk.

Ripi called it "questionable" that Scavo had held onto the Favre messages for two years, the suit says.

The suit alleges that Ripi phoned O'Toole, who had introduced Scavo to the Jets organization, and told her to "keep your mouth shut" and that she'd "never work for the Jets again."

The suit also states that the Jets do not have an appropriate anti-sexual harassment policy in place, and includes this smile-inducing simile regarding the NFL's investigation of Favre:

"The conduct of the Jets and the NFL is tantamount to the scene in the movie 'Casablanca' where the police captain, while pocketing his winnings at the roulette wheel stated, 'I am shocked, shocked, to find gambling going on in this establishment.' "

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