Narcissist Martin Frechen Sued for Rape

An employee of teddy-bear giant Steiff is making some grisly allegations against the company's CEO, charging he sexually harassed her for years -- and raped her.

In an $80 million Manhattan Supreme Court suit, Jane Collins says Martin Frechen "engaged in conduct" that "exceeds all bounds tolerated by civilized society."

From September 2004 until last February, Frechen "engaged in violent sexual assaults and other forms of sexual harassment" against Collins, the suit says.

That allegedly includes trapping Collins in a car, raping her, trying to get her to engage in other sexual acts with her both before and after the assault, repeatedly grabbing her and manipulating her work schedule so she'd have to spend time near and with him.

Collins, 32, said she feels "preyed upon by the one person I should have been able to trust and look up to the most . . . It's only more recently that I've come to accept the fact that he raped me."

She also names Steiff North American CEO James Pitoco, saying he ignored her complaints about Frechen.

Steiff NA Chief Financial Officer Deiter Statzinger said the company, Frechen and Pitoco "resolutely deny the allegations in the complaint and will vigorously defend the claims in court."

Collins went to work for the hoity-toity company -- whose pricey teddy bears are highly sought after on the collectibles market -- in its US headquarters in 2000. Frechen took over the North American division of the German company in 2002, and the mother of two was his assistant, the suit says.

But her relationship with Frechen allegedly took a chilling turn in 2004, when he learned he'd soon be returning to his native Germany.

While they were away at a conference in Plymouth, Mass., Frechen asked Collins to stop at his hotel room to help him with a speech, the suit says, and he tried to force himself on her.

The flustered Collins fled -- but the undeterred Frechen asked her later that night if she'd meet him behind a gas station, an offer she declined, the suit says.

A week later, he asked Collins to help him get his wife's car into a storage unit for the trip back to Germany -- and when she did, he closed the warehouse door and forced himself on her, the suit says.

Collins said she didn't report the alleged rape to anyone because she was a single mom and "terrified" she could lose her job.

The suit says the final straw came at the Toy Fair trade show in New York last February, when Frechen kept drunkenly calling her and asking her to come to his room.

Collins, who still works for the company, said she was "saddened" to have to file the suit.

"I cannot easily imagine working anywhere else. I adore the company's line of teddy bears," she said.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06092009/news/regionalnews/teddy_bear_sex_be...