These days, entitlement apparently will get you a day in court — and a free hotel stay.
A hotel visitor Michelle Rajacic is facing legal action after launching into a full-on racist rant against a Manhattan hotel receptionist who asked for identification before giving her a room key, According to the New York Post.
The entire incident was caught on video.
The verbal assault unfolded just after midnight on April 6, 2018, when Rajacic waltzed into the City Hotel Club demanding a room key. When employee Linda Shell, 36, asked to see ID, Rajacic began hurling racial epithets, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
In a clip taken by Shell, the unhinged hotel guest is heard calling Shell, who’s African-American, a “n—-r,” “dirty f–king raunchy skank,” and a “dirty f–king hood rat,” among other racist insults.
“I have my f—–g ID you f—–g piece of sh-t,” Rajacic yells, slamming what appears to be a credit card on the front desk.
Shell informs the guest her Visa isn’t considered an ID and refuses to let her up until she sees one, an ultimatum that only seemed anger Rajacic more.
“I know, it’s just my f—–g name and it’s on the f—–g room,” she shouts, adding, “I know your f—–g ghetto ass may not know. Rajacic goes on to claim, “I’m paying you for your f—–g job … actually my boyfriend’s f–king family pays you.”
But the abuse didn’t stop there. After she’d had enough, Shell attempted to remove the unruly patron from the building but was physically assaulted.
Michelle Rajacic was filmed launching into a profanity-laden tirade against a Black hotel worker who asked to see her ID. (Photo: Linda Shell / video screenshot)
“I grabbed her arm and started leading her to the front desk,” she recalled of the incident. “[Rajacic] then broke her cellphone across my face.”
Her lawsuit further alleges Rajacic “spit on Plaintiff [and] then assaulted, battered, and attacked the Plaintiff, and used physical force without cause or justification and without Plaintiff’s consent.”
The attacker was eventually arrested and convicted of third-degree assault, according to the complaint. What happened afterward threw Shell for loop.
After Rajacic’s release from jail, the swanky four-star hotel gifted her a room free of charge, Shell said. The decision prompted Shell’s immediate resignation.
“I told them I could no longer work there, because my safety is no longer important to them,” she told the Post.
Management for City Club Hotel vehemently denied the claims and declined to comment on the litigation.
Shell, a Savannah, Georgia, native, said she never thought she’d experience something like this up North. She and her lawyer are pushing forward with their complaint despite the hotel’s denial.
“While Ms. Shell demonstrated noble restraint in the face of such bigotry, what she was forced to endure should not, and will not, be tolerated,” said Shell’s lawyer, John Tait. “We will fight to ensure that Ms. Rajacic is held to account for her actions.”
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
