By Yepoka Yeebo
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A New York mom is suing Lily O'Brien's Chocolate Café in Bryant Park after she was thrown out for nursing her 5-month-old daughter, according to papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday.
Julia Acevedo-Taylor says she was so traumatized that she hasn't been able to feed her daughter, Jordan, in public since the incident a year ago. She is suing for "severe emotional distress and loss of dignity," according to news reports.
Reports said Acevedo-Taylor and a friend, Latasha Augustoplos, were in the cafe Aug. 17 of last year with their "hungry and tired toddlers."
"They were being as discreet as possible," Adam Polo, a lawyer for Acevedo-Taylor, told the Daily News. "It wasn't one of those things where they were wide open."
Mothers can breastfeed anywhere in New York, but that didn't stop the manager of the chocolate shop going over and telling both women to "stop doing that," according to the suit.
"She didn't stop because she knew she was within her rights to do this," said Polo according to the News, adding, "there was no nipple showing."
The manager ordered them both to leave, and Acevedo-Taylor fled in tears, according to the suit.
The suit also says that since the incident, Acevedo-Taylor "has been unable to breast-feed her child in places of public accommodation, as her experience at O'Brien's has left her feeling inhibited from nursing her child. These feelings of inhibition result in severe anxiety whenever [Acevedo-Taylor] contemplates nursing her child outside the privacy of her home."
Cathal Queally, a manager at Lily O'Brien, said the worker on duty last August has since been removed, but denied the incident happened.
"Certainly no one was ever thrown out of our cafe for breastfeeding," he told the New York Post.
