The millennial ex-mayor of a Hamptons hamlet who was accused of pimping out his secretary got the bombshell sexual harassment claims against him dropped — as a judge found his “boorish” and “unpleasant” behavior didn’t cross the legal line.
Accuser Miranda Weber failed to prove that former Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren’s “toxic” conduct toward her was discriminatory, the judge said, characterizing his actions as more of a gender-neutral power trip.
“While the totality of circumstances allege a boorish and inappropriate workplace behavior by the Mayor, inappropriateness alone does not constitute actionable gender-based harassment,” Dutchess County Supreme Court Judge Maureen Liccione ruled Thursday.
Weber’s 2024 lawsuit “describes a controlling, erratic, and demanding supervisor,” Liccione noted in her ruling.
But Warren’s “behavior, while unpleasant and reprehensible, was facially gender-neutral,” she wrote.
Weber worked for the then-mayor — who was the town’s youngest when he was elected at 36 in 2019 — for about two years before she resigned in 2022, and later sued him for harassment, gender dicrimination and retaliation.
But her claims were dismissed, largely because she failed to prove that men in Warren’s office got more favorable treatment than she did, Liccione’s ruling said.
The most stunning claim in the suit — that Warren ostensibly pimped Weber out to have dinner with a handicap trustee in exchange for a favorable political vote — constituted “political manipulation,” not harassment, since she failed to show that the request was due to her being a woman, the judge ruled.
Weber’s filing even offered a “‘menu’ of plausible non-discriminatory explanations” for Warren’s treatment of her, namely that he was more motivated by his political future than animus towards her gender, effectively undercutting her entire suit, the judge wrote.
Weber’s allegations that Warren psychologically manipulated her lacked a clear factual link that the behavior was linked to her gender, and not “his own controlling personality,” according to Liccione.
Her lawsuit also claimed that Warren refused to give her a 70% raise she requested three months after she was hired, from $50,000 to $85,000, because he worried about the “optics” of giving his “attractive young” secretary a massive boost, according to court documents.
He also had to appeal to the town board who actually controlled staff salaries. A month later, the village increased Weber’s salary by $18,000 and within a 16-month period she had received a total $30,000 boost, bringing her salary to $80,000, the decision states.
But Weber claimed she was discriminated against because of her gender, noting that a male employee was hired at a higher starting salary, of $2,000 more.
Liccione found that example “unavailing,” pointing out that the hire was for a totally different civil service role with education requirements and more duties than hers as a secretary.
The fact that she was denied a promotion to that position “does note create an objectively hostile work environment,” the judge said.
“If that were the case, then all workplaces would be characterized as ‘hostile’ work environments,” Liccione wrote.
Many of Weber’s claims were echoed in an earlier and rapidly dismissed lawsuit filed in 2023 by a former village administrator.
In 2021, Warren made news when an ex-mayor purchased the building he resided in and then moved to evict him. He lost re-election in 2022.
Warren’s attorney, Craig V. Rizzo, said they were “happy with the decision” dismissing the suit.
Attorneys for Weber did not reply to a request for comment.