A high-flying exec at a multimillion-dollar agency raped his assistant and choked her — telling her she was “sweeter when half-conscious” — in a revolting “Mad Males’’-like workplace setting, in response to a lawsuit.
Michael Gowl, Jr., a married dad of 5 and the then-executive chairman of PAX Companies Group, a roofing firm, displayed rampant “deviant, predatory and reprehensible conduct” throughout his reign of terror, alleged a brand new authorized submitting that reads like a company psycho-sexual horror story.
“I solely wished to have a job,” Gowl’s ex-assistant, a New York Metropolis resident and African immigrant now in her late 20s, advised The Submit.
However “I’d reasonably be homeless than take that s–t anymore.”
The lady — who filed her swimsuit anonymously in Manhattan federal court docket this month — alleged within the doc that her boss drugged and sexually assaulted her thrice throughout supposed “enterprise” outings.
She stated their skilled relationship first took a darkish flip simply weeks after she was employed in late 2023, when Gowl texted her uncomfortable private questions on rising up Muslim barely a month after his spouse gave beginning to their fifth youngster, in response to her swimsuit.
He quizzed her from the hospital’s new child intensive-care unit, claimed the court docket doc — which Gowl slammed to The Submit as stuffed with “outright lies’’ geared towards a “monetary windfall.’’
The lady — who PAX and its new proprietor, New State, deny was ever even technically employed by the agency — stated in her swimsuit that in January 2024, Gowl lured her the Manhattan hotspot Nobu, seemingly for a “enterprise assembly.’’
The lady, who is very educated and speaks 4 languages, stated that after she sipped a drink she had left briefly unattended, she felt “euphoric, dizzy, and disoriented,” in response to court docket paperwork.
Gowl then acquired her into his close by resort room, stripped to his boxers and tried to “drive a kiss” whereas exhibiting her express movies, the submitting stated.
“You’ll be mad at me tomorrow,” Gowl whispered as he positioned his head between her legs, the lawsuit alleged.
The lady broke free and vomited within the rest room, solely to have Gowl later “FaceTime” her to dangle a pretend promotion as an apology, the swimsuit claimed.
“He cried … doing this complete factor of like, ‘I’m sorry,’ ” she advised The Submit.
“I assumed if I can simply swallow this [incident], it’s OK,’’ stated the girl, claiming Gowl promised her a promotion early on to let her run mergers and acquisitions.
“Each single day I went by was like survival mode.”
However “survival mode” grew to become an insufferable nightmare within the following months, in response to her swimsuit.
She was drugged and raped at Gowl’s residence in Florida and through a “work journey” to the Bahamas, her swimsuit alleged.
In Florida, Gowl raped her in his “marital mattress” whereas his toddler’s crib sat simply toes away, court docket papers claimed.
He additionally choked her, later bragging it was his “favourite factor” as a result of it made her “quieter and sweeter when half-conscious,” the submitting stated.
Through the Bahamas journey, Gowl “forcibly eliminated her clothes, penetrated her, and ejaculated on her” throughout one other time she felt drugged, the swimsuit alleged.
The assistant confronted him about him doubtlessly slipping one thing to her, in response to court docket papers.
He responded, “I took my likelihood as a result of I don’t know once I can be alone with you once more,” the swimsuit alleged.
All of the whereas, Gowl was boasting he “solely hires girls underneath 30 with huge breasts … and questionable morals,” the girl stated in her lawsuit.
He additionally advised her to “cease dressing like a mormon” and “present extra cleavage,” the swimsuit claimed.
There was racism, too, court docket paperwork claimed.
Gowl as soon as texted the girl {that a} younger relative of his “loves an excellent n—–r joke,’’ and the boss additionally excluded a black colleague from huge conferences, telling the plaintiff that the person “is a n—–r and he smells bizarre,” in response to the swimsuit.
“They have been performing actually like ‘Mad Males,’ ” the girl stated within the swimsuit of the workplace environment, referring to the hit TV present a few fictitious sexed-up typically out-of-control advert company within the Nineteen Sixties.
“There was lots of degrading, belittling jokes about … my background,” the girl stated.
PAX and New State responded that whereas they take the girl’s claims “critically,” they deny condoning any wrongdoing and that she was not even technically on their payroll.
Pax additionally claimed to The Submit that Gowl has not been concerned within the Maryland-based firm since early 2024, though his bio appeared on the corporate’s Website a minimum of as late as this previous June, in response to Google’s archive.
The lady advised The Submit she was paid by a associated LLC, which can be a defendant within the swimsuit.
She stated that when she would confront Gowl about his alleged sexual assaults on her, “He would cry.
“He would use his kids. He would use his marriage,” she advised The Submit.
When the plaintiff lastly reached her final straw and stated he needed to cease, the retaliation was “quick,’’ the doc stated.
Gowl threatened her life, warning: “I’ll come after you and finish your life,” then fired her throughout a pretend “promotion” assembly, in response to the swimsuit.
The lady’s lawyer, Bennitta Joseph, advised The Submit, “She ought to by no means have needed to be in a state of affairs the place she would ever have to decide on between her livelihood and having to tolerate any sort of sexual advances within the office.’’
The plaintiff added in her swimsuit that even after she was fired, the terrorizing didn’t cease there.
Gowl employed a retired FBI agent to stalk her social circle, her lawsuit claimed.
The previous agent “flashed” his retired agent badge and unfold rumors that she was a “scammer,” main her solely household within the US to chop her off, in response to the lawsuit.
Gowl even allegedly sabotaged a brand new job supply she had secured, the swimsuit alleged.
The plaintiff stated in court docket papers that she now suffers from continual PTSD and extreme melancholy.
“I need this to be a cautionary story,” she advised The Submit. “To cite one in all Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors: ‘I’m traumatized, however I’m not silly.’ ”
