Global Courant
When Rosevony Duroseau turned 47 last year, her brother and sister-in-law threw a small surprise party to celebrate.
Dr. Yves Duroseau, MD, chairman of the emergency medicine department at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, and his designer wife Claude, invited about 15 guests to a nine-course dinner in the backyard of their gracious Forest Hills home on September 17, 2022 – a Saturday evening – . The occasion was especially joyful for Rosevony, who recently got engaged.
Yves, who in 2020 was the first doctor in the US to receive the COVID vaccine, and Rosevony, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asylum officer based in Washington, D.C., are Haitian-American, and all but one of the guests at the meeting were black or Latino. They included friends of Rosevony from Fordham Law School, where she earned her doctorate, along with attorneys from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the administration of New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, two bank executives, an administrator of New Jersey public schools, at least one public defender, music industry powerhouse Rigo Morales, who co-founder of the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective, and the fiancée of Rosevony, the co-founder and CEO of a cybersecurity risk management consulting firm. The meal was catered by Chef Vanessa Cantave, winner of the 2011 Bravo cooking competition show, Rocco’s Dinner Party.
But as things were winding down, an unknown white woman appeared with a “large, menacing German Shepherd,” and “demanded that the music playing in the backyard be turned down.” according to a stunning civil lawsuit obtained by The Daily Beast.
Dr. Yves Duroseau, the party’s host, was the first doctor in the United States to receive the COVID vaccine.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
When the “attempt to silence the plaintiffs and end their party” apparently did not happen quickly enough, the party ended “abruptly and forcefully” when a white neighbor grabbed his hose and began hosing down the guests to disperse them – “causing a scene reminiscent of Birmingham, Alabama in the 1960s, when white law enforcement officers used fire hoses to extinguish, attack and assault African Americans participating in civil rights demonstrations in an attempt to get them to comply and spread,” the complaint states.
The neighbor, a married father of two, identified in the lawsuits as 48-year-old Marcus Rosebrock, allegedly pointed his hose at the guests again and again, continually increasing the water pressure, until they were not only soaked but thoroughly humiliated.
Mina Q. Malik, who along with co-counsel Derek Sells is representing the Duroseaus and the others who were at the dinner, told The Daily Beast that she happened to be in Alabama when the case came to her office.
“I was shocked and disgusted that water spouts and German Shepherds were used against people of color in New York City in 2022,” said Malik, a 2019 candidate for Queens District Attorney. “I was in disbelief.”
Dinner guest Rigo Morales (left) and singer John Legend pictured at the 2022 Grammy Awards.
Johnny Nunez/Getty
Everyone who attended the party remains “deeply scarred” by the experience, according to Malik, who said the hosts, guests and caterers “felt humiliated and humiliated, and made to feel less than human.”
The Duroseaus’ lawsuit alleges, among other things, that Rosebrock violated their civil rights Title 8 of the New York City Administrative Code, alleging that he had interfered with their “right… to enjoy the ownership of real estate in the City of New York, County of Queens.” The couple have not held a backyard event since the incident and have essentially become, in the words of Malik, “prisoners in their own home.”
Yves and Claude Duroseau, along with all fifteen guests, the caterer and her sous chef, are now suing Rosebrock for unspecified monetary damages for the mental anguish and emotional distress they say he and the dog lady, identified in the complaint as “Jane Doe,” she induced.
“Unable to use their property to peacefully assemble, and humiliated, terrified, embarrassed and degraded, Plaintiffs seek justice for the violent conduct, acts of violence and civil rights violations,” the complaint said.
Vanessa Cantave (second from left), who hosted the Duroseaus’ dinner party, won season 11 of the Bravo cooking competition Rocco’s Dinner Party.
Andrei Jackamets/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
Rosebrock, who is a German national, has not yet filed a response to Duroseaus’ complaint, and his version of events remains absent from the story. On Sunday, his lawyer, Brandon Gillard, told The Daily Beast that his client’s story will eventually appear in court.
“Mr Rosebrock denies all allegations in the complaint and rejects any characterization that he is racist or that his actions were racially motivated,” Gillard said.
The surreal turn of events in the Duroseau household began around 9:50 p.m., when dinner ended and the catering staff began cleaning up. According to the complaint, Jane Doe and her dog appeared in the foyer of the Duroseaus’ home during this time.
Cantave and her assistant, Shani Porter, were the first to come into contact with Doe, and the complaint says the pair immediately became afraid of the “aggressive” German Shepherd. Yves Duroseau went in to see what was going on, and after Doe again insisted that the music be turned down, he politely informed her that they were celebrating an anniversary, that it would be over soon, and asked her to leave his property, the complaint said.
Once Yves rejoined his guests, Rosebrock emerged from his $1.9 million home, which is adjacent to the Duroseau home, and turned the garden hose on them, the complaint said. The water pressure “was extremely powerful and stabbing in nature,” the suit says, adding that Yves escaped with two others to his son’s treehouse, where they attempted to reason with Rosebrock over the fence line.
But instead of backing down, Rosebrock “doubled down,” according to the complaint. It says he “looked directly at (the three men), pointed his water hose at them with increased water pressure, and violently sprayed them in the face and body, drenching them and putting them in fear of serious bodily harm. afraid they would be knocked to the ground from the treehouse.
Rosebrock then turned his hose back on the rest of the group and soaked them again, the complaint continues. One guest tried unsuccessfully to “talk calmly” to Rosebrock to see if she could convince him to stop, but instead he “turned his water hose on (her) at high intensity and viciously rinsed her from head to toe with water” . complaint.
Despite crashing the party, Rosebrock still wasn’t done. She capped off the shocking episode by hosing down the caterer’s assistant as she cleared plates, the complaint said.
The Duroseaus called 911 to report the incident, and two NYPD officers showed up to take a report, Sells, the chairman of The Cochran Firm, told The Daily Beast.
“There has been no follow-up since then, even though this incident should be investigated and treated as a hate crime,” he said.
Rosebrock still lives next door, but the Duroseaus “have not had any meaningful interactions with him since the incident,” Sells said.
“We do not like to generalize or condemn the state of our society based on the heinous actions of two individuals,” Sells said. “All we want is to provide justice for our clients, who are innocent victims of bad people.”
Get the Daily Beast’s biggest scoops and scandals delivered straight to your inbox. Register now.
Stay informed and get unlimited access to the Daily Beast’s unparalleled reporting. Subscribe now.
