By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A handyman at a posh Upper East Side building has filed suit over a series of lowbrow jokes that were allegedly made about his height, according to published reports.
Juan Pablo Pichardo says his supervisor at The Eastmore on East 76th Street near Second Avenue subjected him to a hostile work environment by constantly cracking wise about his stature, the New York Daily News reported.
The supervisor, Moises Gulmet, was accused of calling Pichardo a "midget," slapping him on his head and posting a picture of the handyman's face on a baby's body inside his locker, according to the paper.
Gulmet reportedly denied responsibility for the below-the-belt humor.
"It's nonsense. It's not true," he told the New York Post. "I loved him like he's my son. He hurt me too much. I don't know what he's doing."
Pichardo's suit names the building's co-op board and the management company, Rose Associates, as defendants in addition to Gulmet.
Pichardo, whose precise height was reportedly not included in the suit, was honored by the 2009 Building Service Workers of the Year Awards and praised by tenants in a related profile by the Upper East Side newspaper Our Town.