Former WWE and Impact Wrestling star Taryn Terrell, who is currently working with the NWA, is among those who have filed a lawsuit against The Biltmore Miami Coral Gables hotel and resort, alleging that she was sexually abused by the resort’s former lead massage therapist.
NBC 6 in Miami reports that Terrell and three other women are suing and alleging that Oscar Ojeda touched them inappropriately when he worked for the iconic Biltmore hotel as the lead massage therapist.
“I think the fact that this continued to happen is just gut-wrenching,” Terrell said. “I may be a wrestler. I may be a stunt woman. I may be all of those things, but at the end of the day, I am a human and I deserve the same respect and decency that every other human deserves, and when someone invades your intimate private space, it’s not OK.”
Terrell says she was assaulted in August 2020 while on a get-away with her husband. She went to go get a massage, and was face down in a room alone with Ojeda when the incident happened.
“I froze in fear,” she said. “I wish I was one of those people who said I stood up and I said this is not OK, but I was terrified. In the moment that everything happened I was so mad at myself that I couldn’t even say to him to stop doing what he was doing.”
Police arrested Ojeda in May 2021 and charged him with misdemeanor battery on Terrell and a woman named Seda Aktas, who was the first to publicly come forward.
Terrell says she was offered a free massage when she complained to the hotel.
In a statement after the initial lawsuit, the hotel said its “top priority is ensuring the safety and well-being of all our guests and employees. We were disheartened to learn about this guest’s experience and our former employee’s conduct, the latter of whom is not a part of the Biltmore team. We do not condone this kind of behavior and it is certainly not in any way a representation of the Biltmore and the quality of the services we provide.”
However, the lawsuit alleges women came forward and told the hotel about Ojeda.
“And I used my voice afterwards because I didn’t want it to happen to anybody else, and it did and it happened and I feel so sick to my stomach,” she said. “They didn’t make me feel like going to the police was a thing,”
Former Broward County prosecutor Adriana Alcalde and Eric Baum are the women’s lawyers.
“This also didn’t need to happen to Ms. Terrell,” Alcalde said. “It didn’t need to happen to her at all because there had been a prior complaint in 2017 which they did nothing about.”
“Nothing was done. The individual was not removed by the Biltmore Hotel. There was no investigation,” Baum added. “The matter was not reported to the police. They did nothing. They looked the other way.”
Ojeda has plead not guilty to both charges and is due back in court next month. His attorney has not responded to inquiries from the media.
Stay tuned for more. Below is a local news video on the lawsuit, courtesy of NBC6 in Miami:
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