Case Identification: Pietrylo v. Hillstone Rest. Group, Civil Case No. 06- 5754 (FSH), UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 108834
Facts of the Case: (Plaintiffs) Brian Pietrylo and Doreen Marino were employees of a restaurant by the name of Houston’s at Riverside Square, which was owned by (Defendant) Hillstone Restaurant Group. Mr. Pietrylo while employed there created a private, invite-only MySpace page with the group title “Spec-Tator.” This was a page where, according to Pietrylo, once added, employees could, “vent about any BS [they] deal [with],without work, without any outside eyes spying in on us.” Marino was a member of said group. The first post by Pietrylo was, “let the shit talk begin.” As one employee of said establishment, Karen St. Jean was invited to the group. After accepting the invitation, Ms. St. Jean visited the web group while at TiJean Rodriguez’s, a manager of Houston’s, home and showed Mr. Rodriguez the site. The other managers got some type of access to Spec-Tater . Soon after the General Manager Robert Anton asked St. Jean for the login information to the group without any threat of …show more content…
Anton then printed copies of the discussions on the website and subsequently terminated both Pietrylo and Marino, though the statements made were only in jest. On November 30, 2006, Pietrylo and Marino