Hotel Guest Wins $1.6 Million After Assault by Unregistered Massage Therapist at Sixty LES
Won by Napoli Shkolnik.
Joseph Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik won a $1.6 million total judgment for a hotel guest sexually assaulted by an unregistered massage therapist the Sixty Lower East Side provided without any background check.
What happened
In October 2018, Margaret Betts booked an in-room massage at the Sixty Lower East Side Hotel in Manhattan. The hotel arranged for a massage therapist named Iouri Astakhov to enter her suite. Astakhov was not registered or authorized to practice massage therapy in New York, a credential the hotel never bothered to check.
What followed was a sexual assault. Betts filed suit in the Southern District of New York in 2020, represented by Joseph Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC. The case charged the hotel and its parent entities with negligence, alleging they handed an unknown man unsupervised access to a guest's private room after telling her in-room spa services could be safely provided there.
During litigation, discovery confirmed the hotel had no meaningful screening process for the independent contractors it sent into guest rooms. It had not investigated Astakhov's certifications, his criminal history, or his registration status. The hotel falsely implied to guests that these services were vetted and safe.
In August 2023, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald granted Betts partial summary judgment on liability. The court found that by using an unregistered massage therapist, the hotel had violated New York Education Law section 7802, and that violation constituted negligence per se. The hotel's subsequent motion to vacate that ruling was denied.
The case proceeded to a jury trial on damages. On July 17, 2025, the jury awarded Betts $1 million for past pain and suffering and $375,000 for future pain and suffering, with fault apportioned 50 percent to the defendants. The court also awarded pre-judgment interest of $237,677.81, which accrued from the date of the liability ruling. The total judgment entered was $1,612,667.81. The hotel moved to reduce the damages award and the court denied that motion as well, finding the compensation reasonable.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.CourtListener: Betts v. Sixty Lower East Side LLC, 1:20-cv-04772 (S.D.N.Y.), full court docket
- 2.Law360: Case page: Betts v. Sixty Lower East Side, LLC et al
- 3.Hotel News Resource: Napoli Shkolnik Wins Case of Negligence Against Sixty Lower East Side (Aug. 28, 2023)·Archived copy
- 4.Justia: Betts v. Sixty Lower East Side, No. 1:2020cv04772, Doc. 206 (S.D.N.Y. 2025), post-trial order
More proven verdicts from Napoli Shkolnik
All Napoli Shkolnik proven verdicts →As court-appointed co-lead plaintiffs' counsel in AFFF MDL 2873, Paul J. Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik negotiated a settlement requiring 3M Company to pay up to $12.5 billion to public water systems contaminated by PFAS compounds in firefighting foam, the largest drinking-water settlement in American legal history.
As court-appointed co-lead counsel in AFFF MDL 2873, Paul J. Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik helped negotiate a $1.185 billion class settlement with DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva to compensate public water systems across the United States for PFAS contamination tied to firefighting foam.
Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik represented Nassau County in negotiations that produced a $1.1 billion settlement with McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen, the three largest prescription drug distributors in the United States.
Paul Napoli served as court-appointed co-liaison counsel for nearly 10,000 firefighters, police officers, and construction workers who developed respiratory diseases after working at Ground Zero, securing a settlement worth up to $712.5 million against the city and its contractors.
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Joseph Bruno and Bruno & Bruno served as lead plaintiffs' counsel in a landmark class action brought by more than 8,000 Gentilly residents exposed to a butadiene tank-car fire in 1987, securing a jury verdict that included $2.5 billion in punitive damages against CSX Transportation alone, later reduced to $850 million on appeal and affirmed by Louisiana's Fourth Circuit.