Dr. Francesco 'Franco' Sebastiani had sought more than $2 million damages over his 2020 dismissal from a dental residency program.
When he sued in 2020, a one-time San Antonio dentist who said he suffered sexual harassment and gender discrimination at the UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry was seeking millions. He’ll get nothing.
On Monday, a federal jury in San Antonio found Dr. Francesco “Franco” Sebastiani failed to prove he was unlawfully dismissed from a residency program in 2020. Sebastiani had sued the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, now UT Health San Antonio, and the Bexar County Hospital District, which does business as University Health, seeking more than $2 million for past and future lost wages and other damages. RELATED: Sex, NSFW texts and dentist Dr. Francesco Sebastiani’s legal battles The seven jurors began deliberations late Friday and delivered their verdict Monday afternoon. The two-week trial started April 10 but was paused for about three weeks before resuming last week in U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia’s courtroom. Ricardo Cedillo, one of Sebastiani’s lawyers, said he did not have authorization from his client to discuss the verdict. In an emailed statement, UT Health didn’t address the verdict. “We remain focused on our mission of serving the public good with integrity and steadfast in our commitment to fostering a safe and respectful environment for all members of our community,” it said. University Health didn’t have an immediate comment. New York roots Sebastiani accused dentistry officials at the school of scheming to drive him out of the oral and maxillofacial surgery program, a highly specialized area of dentistry, before he could complete it. He came to San Antonio looking for a fresh start in 2018 after leaving a residency program at the Brooklyn Hospital Center. At that hospital, he became romantically involved with his supervisor — Dr. Pik Lee — until he ended the relationship in 2016. He alleges Lee then began sending him “harassing” text messages and threatening him and his family if he didn’t resume the relationship. Sebastiani says he complained to the head of the hospital’s residency about the alleged harassment but no action was taken. He has a pending lawsuit against the New York hospital for sexual harassment, gender discrimination, a hostile work environment and retaliation. The case landed him in the pages of a New York tabloid in 2019. The events in New York sparked the harassment and discrimination in San Antonio, Sebastiani alleged. He accused a chief resident in the San Antonio program — a friend of Lee’s — of telling colleagues he must be gay for turning down Lee’s offers to have sex with him. The resident also texted him an image of a sex toy “to violate Plaintiff with,” he alleged in his complaint, which contained screen shots of texts and photos not suitable for work. Sebastiani had sued under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, alleging he was discriminated against in an educational setting. He also sued for discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the act, established to protect employees. But jurors found Sebastiani was not an employee of either UT Health or University Health. UT Health disputed Sebastiani’s claims, saying he was dismissed for academic deficiencies including a lack of professionalism while training as a resident. The first question jurors were asked to determine was whether Sebastiani had proved he would not have been dismissed from the residency program “but for … his perceived sexual orientation or failure to conform to gender stereotypes.” They answered “No.” ‘Untrustworthy doctor’ John Ramsey, an assistant state attorney general representing UT Heath, described Sebastiani as an “untrustworthy doctor” whom the school had to dismiss from the residency program “to protect the public.” Ramsey referenced an incident in which a patient almost died. “He has supplied no evidence that he could be a successful surgeon,” Ramsey told jurors during closing arguments Friday. “He failed two residency programs. He has been fired from one of the first jobs he had. I think he’s shown you that he’s not trustworthy. “He’s got so many lawsuits going on,” Ramsey added. “So many people have done so many things wrong to him. Who owes him money? That was never clear. He’s not shown us why UT owes him anything.” After Sebastiani left San Antonio, he went to work for a chain of dental offices in Florida. But he alleged in a 2022 complaint the company fired him after less than a year in retaliation for bringing lawsuits in San Antonio and New York. The company countered that he’d inflated his credentials. It came out during closing arguments in the San Antonio case that the dispute has been settled. Erin McNiece, a lawyer for University Health where Sebstiani trained, said the hospital should never have been a defendant in the lawsuit because it had no authority to terminate him from the residency program. But she also attacked his credibility by citing instances where he had used an alias, including in connection with a business he started. “There were many times in this courtroom where Dr. Sebastiani could not answer simple questions,” McNiece said. “He couldn’t answer simple questions because he wasn’t telling the truth.” ‘Powerful institutions’ Cedillo, Sebastiani’s lawyer, accused the defendants of carrying out a “concerted effort to just put up as much garbage as they can, throw it up on the wall and see what sticks.” “It’s all done with a very, very calculated purpose,” he said to jurors during closing arguments. “It’s done to get you to be biased against him. ‘Oh, he’s a liar. Oh, he’s untruthful. Oh, he kills people. Oh, he’s sloppy.’ … All calculated.” He called Sebastiani a young man willing to take on “two powerful institutions” whose representatives “sometimes take the wrong path.” Sebastiani received goods marks in general surgery rotation and in the anesthesiology departments while in the residency program, as well as for his “professionalism,” which the defense called into question, said John Crouch, another lawyer for Sebastiani. “The one thing that they say is lacking in my client is kind of a hard argument, I think, for them to make,” Crouch told the jury. “Their chief residents are circulating giant, black , pictures of naked people. And they’re claiming my client is lacking in professionalism?”
UT Health San Antonio School Of Dentistry Francesco ``Franco'' Sebastiani Ricardo Cedillo John Ramsey Pik Lee Orlando Garcia Erin Mcniece John Crouch Sebastiani Title VII Sebstiani UT Health San Antonio New York U.S. Brooklyn Hospital Center UT Heath Florida NSFW Title IX Civil Rights Act
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