A video director for the New York Giants claims he was fired in retaliation for reporting that his immediate supervisor attacked an underling – contributing to a “pattern and culture of violence in the workplace.”
New Jersey resident David Maltese, a former 30-year employee of the football team, alleges in the suit filed Thursday in New Jersey Superior Court that he had “personally been victimized by the culture of violence in the Giants’ workplace.”
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Maltese claims in the court documents that he witnessed his immediate supervisor, Tyseer Siam – the director of football data and innovation for the Giants — assault one of Maltese’s subordinates, Steven Venditti, on September 12, 2020.
The suit says that Maltese was terminated in March without reason after he reported the incident – in violation of New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act.
When Maltese complained about the incident to upper management, he pointed out that Siam “had engaged in threatening behavior toward” him and that “Siam’s violence was just a recent example of a pervasive and continuing pattern and culture of violence in the workplace by Giants’ management toward subordinates,” the suit charges.
At the time, Maltese “reminded” William Heller, the Giants’ senior vice president and general counsel – and a defendant in the lawsuit – that during his career he had been “physically attacked” by the Giants’ former video director John Mancuso, the court papers say.
Additionally, Maltese claims in the suit that he also reported a December 2004 incident in which he says former assistant coach Dave DeGuglielmo “ragefully tackled” Maltese, “driving him into a table while screaming, ‘I am going to kill you.’”
The suit says the attack happened in front of players, coaches and Chris Mara, the Giants senior vice president of player personnel.
“Defendants took no disciplinary action against DeGuglielmo and thereby endorsed and condoned a culture of violence in the Giants’ workplace,” the lawsuit states.
The suit notes following the attack against Venditti, Maltese had expressed concerns in an email that Venditti was to be seated next to Siam on an upcoming team flight to Chicago. Heller accused Maltese of “trying to set us [the Giants] up” and “writing for the record,” the suit says.
During a Sept. 30 meeting, according to the suit, Heller stated that if Maltese revealed what was said in their meetings to people who were not a part of them, “I will personally go into your office and strangle you until you can no longer breathe, ok? OK?”
“At the time Defendant Heller made that threat of physical violence, he was well aware that Plaintiff had a history of traumatization having been subject over the years to violent attacks by Giants’ managers and executives,” the lawsuit says.
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The suit seeks monetary damages for “pain, suffering, stress, humiliation, mental anguish, emotional harm and personal physical injury and physical sickness, medical expenses, as well as damage to his reputation and loss of income.”
A rep for the Giants did not immediately return a request for comment by The Post Thursday.
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