The owner of Miami's most iconic Cuban restaurant is at the center of a sordid lawsuit alleging sexual harassment, smutty photos, and rooms full of sex toys. It's all playing out in civil court thanks to a complaint by a former Versailles worker that lays out the sex claims against Felipe Valls Sr., the restaurant's owner.
Ayler Ayala says that she had a scandalous relationship with the restaurateur while working in the Little Havana mainstay and that after ending the relationship, she endured harassment and insults from Valls' family. Ayala, who is seeking lost back pay and benefits, punitive damages, and attorney's fees, says she has suffered an "emotional breakdown" over the situation.
Valls vehemently denies her claims. "Not only is this lawsuit baseless and devoid of any merit, it is a blatant attempt by a former disgruntled employee to use the court system to improperly extract money from an employer through salacious, ludicrous, and irrelevant allegations," says his attorney, Victor Diaz.
The trouble, the way Ayala tells it, started in 2005, when she worked as a cashier at Versailles. Valls Sr. began an "extremely sordid" affair, she claims, including "requesting that Ms. Ayala engage in sexual relationships with another female Valls Group employee at the 'Miami Princess' hotel... and engaging in sexual relations with Ms. Ayala in a secret room at the back of Mr. Valls' private office in the restaurant that contained a bed and bathroom and was littered with sex toys and sex paraphernalia."
When she ended the relationship in 2008, she says, Valls tried to restart the affair and then fired her when she refused. The next year, she found work with Global Concessions Inc., an airport concessionaire that the Valls family owns.
In 2012, Felipe Valls Jr. and other family members discovered that Ayala was still employed by one of the family-owned companies and began harassing her, she says, resulting in a "breakdown" that required a 911 call for treatment.
It's not Ayala's only claim against the restaurant. She's also a witness in a separate whistleblower and defamation case filed by a former Versailles general manager claiming the restaurant hired undocumented workers, harassed employees over their sexual orientation, and violated wage laws.
Since filing her suit, Ayala has faced criticism over her social media presence, which included sexy Facebook photos posed in a bra sans blouse. Her attorney, though, says she'll be vindicated in court. "It's a very lonely world for her out there today," says Pelayo M. Duran, "but we are comfortable and confident that other people will be joining her in solidarity."
