A Christmas party at a Los Angeles area Taco Bell descended into alcohol-fueled debauchery that included staffers at the fast food restaurant having three-way sex romps in full view of others as well as intoxicated revelers vomiting into a bowl of guacamole, according to a lawsuit.
Alana Bechiom filed suit against Taco Bell and a Colorado-based franchise owner earlier this week alleging that she was forced to quit her job as a cashier at the fast food restaurant after she reported the incident to human resources.
The lawsuit does not specify how much Bechiom is seeking in damages.
Bechiom alleged in the complaint that she, her sister, and her sister’s significant other attended a Christmas party at the Taco Bell location where she worked in San Pedro, Calif., on Dec. 18 of last year.
She was invited to the party by her supervisor, Lidia Ruiz, who is named in the complaint filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
According to the complaint, Bechiom and other staffers were encouraged to bring food in a potluck-style buffet to the restaurant, located on South Gaffey Street in San Pedro.
Bechiom, who prepared a bowl of guacamole for the occasion, arrived at the party and “discovered that Ruiz covered the windows of the restaurant with wrapping paper” and “also covered the cameras for the lobby in the inside of the restaurant,” according to the complaint.
The complaint accuses Ruiz of providing alcohol to the staffers — several of whom were “overserved,” it was alleged.
At around midnight, Bechiom, who had been socializing outside the restaurant for a short while, “walked back into the restaurant” and witnessed a co-worker “having sex with his wife in front of everyone at the party,” it was alleged in the complaint.
The co-worker’s wife was “bent over” and “kissing both Ruiz and another co-worker,” the complaint alleged. The co-worker was given the pseudonym “Adriana.”
Bechiom was “shocked, disgusted and outraged by what she saw and ran outside,” according to the complaint.
When she went back inside the restaurant to retrieve her guacamole bowl, she saw Ruiz and “Adriana” throwing up, it was alleged in the complaint.
One of them vomited in the trash while the other threw up in Bechiom’s guacamole bowl, according to the complaint.
Days later, Bechiom reported the incident to human resources as well as to Alvarado Restaurant Group, the Colorado-based franchisee that owns and operates the San Pedro location.
After a company investigation, Ruiz and the other co-workers involved in the alleged sex romp were fired, it was stated in the complaint.
After their termination, “someone associated with” Ruiz and the co-workers “retaliated” against Bechiom by “smash[ing] out the back left window” of her car at her home in the middle of the night, it was alleged in the complaint.
Bechiom is then alleged to have received numerous threatening text messages, including one from a female co-worker which read: “baby girl I wanna break your face [I don’t give a f–k] about your car.”
A male co-worker is alleged to have texted her insults calling her “stupid n f–ked up,” a “hoe,” and “slut.”
Bechiom reported the incidents to the Los Angeles Police Department as well as to her superiors at Taco Bell.
She alleged in the complaint that Taco Bell and the franchisee “did nothing about these threats and instead told [her] that they were transferring her to a new location rather than disciplining the employees who threatened her.”
On Christmas Eve, Bechiom “felt so overcome with significant stress, physical and mental illness and anxiety from the hostile work environment” that “she had no other choice but to inform” her bosses that she was quitting, the complaint alleged.
Bechiom alleged in the complaint that she “has suffered actual, consequential and incidental financial losses” and that her “constructive termination” violated anti-discrimination laws.
The Post has sought comment from Bechiom, Taco Bell, Alvarado Restaurant Group, and the LAPD.
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