A New York City oral surgeon has been accused of sexual harassment by his chauffeur, including trying to force him to look at his penis while he stroked it while being driven around.
43-year-old driver Christopher Jackson has filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn Supreme Court against 40-year-old Dr. Gabriel Hershman, an NYPD oral surgeon.
Jackson was hired in April 2022 as Dr. Hershman was hired to take him to and from his home in Queens to his office in Brooklyn, along with various other routes, including trips to his Jewish studies course and various coffee runs.
But just two months after taking on the role of Hershman’s driver, Brooklyn-based Jackson quit his job at Hershman’s medical office in June amid allegations of ongoing sexual harassment.
The lawsuit details troubling cases of harassment, including Dr. Hershman’s repeated discussion of the size of his own genitals, which he was said to be obsessed with – and which he mentioned at least four times a week.
The New York oral surgeon Dr. Gabriel Hershman (40) (pictured) is accused of sexual harassment against his chauffeur Christopher Jackson (43).
Hershman “began talking about the small size of his penis,” which “became an obsessive topic of conversation as he said he wished he could increase it by inches,” the lawsuit says.
In a conversation, he allegedly expressed a desire to grow taller.
Apparently, Dr. Hershman also revealed personal information about his unsatisfactory sex life with his wife and made inappropriate jokes about Jackson’s sex life, including offensive comments about a motel they passed.
In the filing, he said it was the kind of place where “a fat n****r named Shanequa comes into your room and sits on your face… you know you want that.”
The dentist also allegedly asked Jackson to look at him while he behaved explicitly and made lewd noises.
Hershman allegedly attempted to force Jackson to watch various explicit acts and make sexually suggestive noises while driving around (file photo from his office).
When Jackson refused, Dr. Hershman made eye contact through the rearview mirror while “making moaning noises and saying he was close to ejaculation.”
Jackson repeatedly called for such conversations to end, but Dr. Hershman persisted, which ultimately led to Jackson’s resignation.
Jackson “would continually demand that these conversations cease,” the lawsuit says.
Jackson made it clear to the New York Post that he was upset and concerned about the situation.
“There is no person who works hard to make a living who should have been subjected to this kind of treatment and I find that absolutely terrible,” he told the newspaper.
“He didn’t care,” Jackson said. “He has money and his father has money and he believes this is something that will save them from everything.”
He also pointed out the significant power imbalance, with Dr. Hershman’s financial resources and social standing made the situation even more complex.
“He walks around like he’s a model citizen in his religious community, in the business community and also in the New York Police Department,” Jackson said.
“I hope he’s held accountable. ‘I hope he doesn’t do this to anyone else.’
To stop the harassment, Jackson recorded a recording of the misconduct and confronted Dr. Hershman to the speech. The doctor didn’t deny the allegations, but instead apologized and claimed they were just “locker room talk.”
“Just because we’re in the car doesn’t mean we’re not still in a work environment,” Jackson told Dr. Hershman. “I’m not going to let this happen to me anymore,” Jackson told him.
Jackson, who was on call every day from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. to see Dr. Driving around in his Cadillac Escalade, Hershman emphasized the importance of maintaining professionalism even in the automotive environment.
Jackson is now suing Dr. Hershman, his father and their medical practice and is seeking unspecified damages for a hostile work environment and unpaid overtime wages.
Jackson’s attorney, Jon Bell, emphasized that sexual harassment takes many forms and is not limited to specific genders or actions while telling Dr. condemned Hershman’s actions as outrageous.
“Only very sexual conversations with one of your employees constitutes a violation,” Bell said. “Chris was legitimately very uncomfortable.”
‘All [Jackson] What he is doing is to support himself and his family in these difficult times, and the arrogance of this doctor to turn around and treat Chris like this, not only with the blatant statements, but also unfairly treat him with the amount of his salary “This is a truly egregious case,” Bell said.
The lawyer for Dr. Hershman, Jason Zoldessy, suggested that Jackson had mental health issues and made up the allegations after he was told he was being fired.
“When confronted with his termination, he invented this salacious narrative.” “Our clients intend to fight the claims aggressively,” Zoldessy said.
Jackson’s attorney, Bell, dismissed such claims as false and agreed to address them in court.
“We find it incredulous that Dr. “Hershman, instead of taking responsibility for his abhorrent behavior, is now trying to spread the narrative that Mr. Jackson was somehow killed,” Bell said. “We look forward to resolving this in court.”‘
So far, Dr. Hershman has not commented on the allegations.
