NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Fox News employee who says she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after being bitten by bedbugs at work filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the owner of the office tower where she worked.
Jane Clark, 37, a 12-year veteran of Fox News, a unit of News Corp, said she complained to human resources after being bitten three times between October 2007 and April 2008. She said she was ridiculed and the office was not treated for months.
Beacon Capital Partners, which owns the tower in midtown Manhattan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The suit did say how much Clark was seeking in damages.
Clark, who says she's been diagnosed with PTSD and can no longer work, has filed a separate workers compensation claim with News Corp, and the company is paying her medical bills and lost wages. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"They made a lot of mistakes," Clark said through tears at a news conference at the office of her lawyer, Alan Schnurman, who said he has brought numerous bedbug cases.
"I didn't want my baby to get bitten. I was terrified of bringing it home," Clark said.
She said she believed a colleague who used her workstation on weekends, and who no longer works for Fox News, brought the infestation to the office. Clark's home was never infested.
Clark says she suffers nightmares and keeps a flashlight at her bedside so she can check for bugs during the night.
"It's their obligation to the working public to provide a safe environment," Schnurman said.
