Yoga teacher claims co-worker harassed her with ‘sex contract’ that required ‘singing upon request’ and ‘NO CHEATING’
Exclusive: The alleged stipulations included a demand for STD paperwork, scheduled sessions for “making love,” and, “NO CHEATING!!!!!!!”
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Your support makes all the difference.A New York City yoga instructor claims they were the target of relentless come-ons by a co-worker who pitched them a “sex contract” in which he demanded “std paper work,” scheduled carve-outs for “making love,” and an expectation that the unenthusiastic target of his affections be “a good kisser.”
“[I]f only you’d sign the contract, life would be different for you,” boxing and fitness trainer Devon “Cfoo” Hill said in a text message to actress-yogi Sierra Berkeley Fisher, according to a civil suit filed in New York State Supreme Court the day before Valentine’s Day.
When Hill’s harassment became too much to bear, Fisher complained to management at their gym, Brooklyn’s Green Fitness Studio, the complaint states. But, it contends, when nothing was done about it, Fisher had no choice but to quit.
Hill’s alleged overtures included such lines as, “You are the hottest woman at the gym,” and, “I feel you’d really fall for me if you open your mind to something different,” according to Fisher’s complaint.
“So, can I touch your a**?” Hill at one point asked Fisher, who “unequivocally responded, ‘NO,’” the complaint says.
To that, a persistent Hill allegedly replied, “Why can’t I touch your a**? It doesn’t even have to be in public for everyone to see. It can be in private.”
After Fisher, who uses they/them pronouns, complained to higher-ups at Brooklyn’s Green Fitness Studio, an eco-friendly gym in Bushwick that attained a degree of renown as a place where Hasidic Jews in formal regalia and trucker-hat-wearing hipsters can be seen working out alongside one another, management did nothing to stem Hill’s behavior, according to the complaint.
Attorney Zachary Holzberg, who is representing Fisher, told The Independent, “It’s our position that what happened was unacceptable, and something that we’re hoping we can get recourse for. The fact that they were aware of this, and that it was allowed to continue, is just unacceptable.”
A man who answered a phone number associated with Hill, whose bio says he has worked with at least one Golden Gloves silver medalist, claimed not to be him and professed ignorance about the case. Green Fitness owner Barry Borgen, who is named as a defendant in Fisher’s lawsuit, told The Independent to “stop calling my employees,” then seethed, “This is all nonsense... We don't know anything about it, the whole thing is ridiculous.”
Green Fitness hired Fisher as a yoga teacher in January 2020, but their class schedule was put on hold two months later due to the Covid pandemic that shut down in-person instruction, according to Fisher’s complaint. After the studio re-opened in April 2021, Fisher returned, teaching roughly seven classes a week, the complaint states.
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It says Fisher met Hill, who was working at Green Fitness five days a week, at a staff meeting that August. A few months later, Fisher began taking strength and fitness classes with Hill, who simultaneously began “making unwelcome sexual remarks” to Fisher, according to the complaint.
Throughout the winter of 2022, Hill “repeatedly” told Fisher, “The moment I saw you, you really turned my head,” the complaint continues.
During this period, Hill also allegedly told Fisher, who studied drama and has appeared in a handful of short films, “When you get famous, we should sign a contract for me to be your boyfriend.”
The proposition left Fisher “perplexed and uncomfortable,” and they “rejected [Hill’s] unwelcome sexual advances,” the complaint states. In one instance, Hill “glar[ed] at [Fisher’s] body in a sexual manner,” and in response to Fisher taking exception to the alleged leering, said, “My bad, I was trying to not look at your ass,” the complaint goes on. Hill was unceasing in bringing up “his ongoing interest to engage in a romantic and sexual relationship with [Fisher], memorialized in a written ‘contract,’ and stated, ‘You are the hottest woman at the gym,’” according to the complaint.
“If I was your man, you know I would treat you well,” Hill allegedly said.
In early April 2022, the complaint says Hill finally made Fisher an offer, texting over a “sex contract” with “option of resign [sic]” after six-months.
According to the complaint, the contract listed a series of stipulations – in addition to the STD test, scheduled love-making sessions, and a non-negotiable aptitude for kissing – such as, “No insecurities of any kind,” “We must Greet [sic] each other with hugs and kisses,” “You must sing to me upon request,” and finally, “NO CHEATING!!!!!!!”
The complaint says the ham-fisted seduction attempts continued, with Hill taking surreptitious photos of Fisher during workouts and ultimately saying, “I’m really into you. You can just let me know if you are or aren’t.”
When Hill, who is considerably older than Fisher, didn’t get the response he desired, he emphasized that “age is just a number,” that “[w]hat we do isn’t for anyone’s audience unless you want it that way,” and that he was “willing to take it slow but I’m not pushy but I just feel I [shouldn’t] give up,” the complaint states. Following Fisher’s firm denial of Hill’s ongoing offers, he dropped all pretense and sent them a “disturbing and sexual note professing his desire for an intimate relationship,” according to the complaint, which cites a rhyming couplet involving Fisher’s “papaya.”
After one final push by Hill for Fisher to sign the contract, Fisher finally went to management and reported him for sexual harassment, the complaint says. It contends that Green Fitness “took no corrective action,” and did not reprimand Hill, who, according to the complaint, argued that some people “say things and other people take them the wrong way.”
Fisher claims they were “constructively discharged,” meaning forced to quit a job so intolerable, no reasonable person would stay – and which, in a legal context, is considered the same as having been fired. As a result of the “discriminatory and intolerable conduct” the complaint says Fisher endured, they continue to suffer “severe emotional distress and physical ailments,” as well as “unwarranted financial hardships and irreparable damage to [their] professional reputation.”
Fisher is demanding to be reinstated, plus punitive damages and a financial judgment against Green Fitness and its owner, plus attorneys’ fees.