The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

AN American couple are suing Sandals Resorts for $30 million, alleging the butler assigned to them as part of their “dream wedding” package in the Bahamas molested the bride as she slept. 

Ashley Reid Pascarella, 32, and her husband John Pascarella, 32, booked their wedding package in April 2016 at Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau. 

The couple arranged for 70 guests to join them on what was to be the wedding of a lifetime — a dream trip which instead descended into a nightmare, based on the allegations the couple described in their lawsuit, which was filed in the Supreme Court of the state of New York on Tuesday. 

According to the court documents, Sandals assigned a butler to the couple.  On April 15, 2016, the lawsuit alleges Moral Adderley “stealthily entered the bedroom of (Mrs Pascarella) and undertook surreptitiously to fondle, grope, and take sexual liberties of (her) beneath her bed-clothes and clothing.” 

Mrs Pascarella also described the ordeal to the New York Post, which she said occurred around 2am. “Something was prompting me to wake up, something was wrong,” she told The Post. “As I started to wake myself up, I realised his hands were down my pants and I jumped out of bed. I screamed. He got up, he ran out of the room. I was just kind of disheveled and disoriented. I couldn’t make sense of what just happened. I was in shock.’’

Mrs Pascarella said her husband was in the bathroom at the time of the attack. Upon hearing her screams, he took off after the butler, who was subsequently arrested, the couple said. 

Mrs Pascarella also said that although resort officials told her the butler had been fired that night and his work phone with client information confiscated, she was “horrified” the next morning when he called her cell phone “to take her breakfast order as if the assault never occurred.” 

Despite the traumatic event, the couple decided to have their wedding, not wanting to disappoint the dozens of guests who flew to join them. 

According to court documents, officers from the Cable Beach Police Station processed Mrs Pascarella’s sexual assault report on April 15, 2016. On April 22 2016, the lawsuit says the butler pleaded guilt to indecent assault in a Magistrate’s Court. 

The Pascarellas told the Post that the resort staff were “very dismissive” of the matter and solely offered them a refund of the event - $15,000 - in exchange for the couple signing a nondisclosure agreement — a proposal the couple rejected. Mrs Pascarella also said she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the incident and has spent two years in therapy.

In the lawsuit, the couple says the “pain, suffering, hurt, and humiliation” of the assault were “due entirely to the negligence, failure, direct and indirect, of (Sandals), its agents, servants, and/or employees.” 

The two are suing the resort for $10m for the resorts’ negligence, another $10m at least for the breach of contract, and a third sum of at least $10m for Mr Pascarella’s “loss of consortium”. 

Sandals spokeswoman Debbie-Ann White, senior vice-president of public relations and promotions at Unique Vacations Inc, sent a statement to The Tribune on the matter. 

“There is nothing more important than the safety and security of our guests, and we take allegations of criminal assault at our resorts seriously,” the statement noted. We have worked tirelessly over decades to create a safe and enjoyable environment at our resorts, and our efforts include collaborating with various government and law enforcement resources to ensure we are among the safest resorts operating in the Caribbean. 

“Our approach relies on a combination of robust policies, employee training, and security infrastructure and technology across all our resorts in multiple countries. We routinely evaluate these to ensure they reflect best in class methods in the locations where we operate.”