'Terrified' Padma Lakshmi Testifies In Teamsters Extortion Trial
A terrified Padma Lakshmi took the stand in federal court in Boston August 7 to confirm allegations against union workers who are said to have verbally assaulted the Top Chef host in 2014. Lakshmi's testimony is part of the trial of four members of Teamsters Union Local 25 — Robert Cafarelli, John Fidler, Daniel Remond, and Michael Ross — who are charged with attempting to extort the show's nonunion production company for driving jobs, according to ABC News. (A fifth member of the union, Mark Harrington, pleaded guilty to the same charges in December and was sentenced to two years of probation and six months of house arrest and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and restitution of $24,023.)
Teamsters union members were protesting outside Steel and Rye in Milton (a Boston suburb where Top Chef was being filmed) when one member leaned his arm into Lakshmi's vehicle, spewing sexual and racial slurs toward Lakshmi and her producers, the Boston Herald reported.
"I felt like he was bullying me, like he was telling me he was going to hit me," Lakshmi added. "I could feel my heart beat in my chest. I felt threatened." Erica Ross, then a producer on the popular cooking competition show, described Lakshmi as having been "visibly terrified."
The jury was able to view a YouTube video recorded by producer Ellie Carbajal, which shows the accused men calling her a "f— towel head" and a "c—."
In Carbajal's testimony, she said the men "swarmed [Lakshmi's] vehicle and surrounded it," according to Deadline. One union worker, looking at Lakshmi a few inches from the car's window, allegedly declared, "That's the pretty one. We want to smash her face in."
In addition to Lakshmi and Carbajal, Top Chef judge Gail Simmons also took the stand. The Boston Herald reports Simmons having said, "There aren't many times in my life I can recall feeling that afraid."
Teamsters Local 25 officials denied that their workers had done anything wrong. Local 25 spokeswoman Melissa Hurley told the Herald, "As far as we're concerned, nothing happened."
A terrified Padma Lakshmi took the stand in federal court in Boston August 7 to confirm allegations against union workers who are said to have verbally assaulted the Top Chef host in 2014. Lakshmi's testimony is part of the trial of four members of Teamsters Union Local 25 — Robert Cafarelli, John Fidler, Daniel Remond, and Michael Ross — who are charged with attempting to extort the show's nonunion production company for driving jobs, according to ABC News. (A fifth member of the union, Mark Harrington, pleaded guilty to the same charges in December and was sentenced to two years of probation and six months of house arrest and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and restitution of $24,023.)
Teamsters union members were protesting outside Steel and Rye in Milton (a Boston suburb where Top Chef was being filmed) when one member leaned his arm into Lakshmi's vehicle, spewing sexual and racial slurs toward Lakshmi and her producers, the Boston Herald reported.
"I felt like he was bullying me, like he was telling me he was going to hit me," Lakshmi added. "I could feel my heart beat in my chest. I felt threatened." Erica Ross, then a producer on the popular cooking competition show, described Lakshmi as having been "visibly terrified."
The jury was able to view a YouTube video recorded by producer Ellie Carbajal, which shows the accused men calling her a "f— towel head" and a "c—."
In Carbajal's testimony, she said the men "swarmed [Lakshmi's] vehicle and surrounded it," according to Deadline. One union worker, looking at Lakshmi a few inches from the car's window, allegedly declared, "That's the pretty one. We want to smash her face in."
In addition to Lakshmi and Carbajal, Top Chef judge Gail Simmons also took the stand. The Boston Herald reports Simmons having said, "There aren't many times in my life I can recall feeling that afraid."
Teamsters Local 25 officials denied that their workers had done anything wrong. Local 25 spokeswoman Melissa Hurley told the Herald, "As far as we're concerned, nothing happened."