Custodian claims pizza poisoning

FAIR LAWN, N.J., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A Fair Lawn, N.J., school custodian is suing the local board of education, claiming he was intentionally poisoned with hallucinogenic drugs at an office party.

Dominick Rao said he was often bullied during his tenure with the Fair Lawn Board of Education by coworkers and his supervisor because he has bilateral ocular albinism, a condition that causes his eyes to have no pigment, The Record of Bergan County, N.J., reported Monday.

Richard Mazawey, Rao's attorney, said his client was served pizza from a different box than his coworkers at an Aug. 19, 2005, party at Fair Lawn High School. Soon after, he went to the emergency room at Hackensack University Medical Center because he was feeling unusual and doctors determined "he had a controlled dangerous substance running through his bloodstream," Mazawey said.

"He said he felt like his body and system were melting from the inside out, like he was living in a kaleidoscope," Mazawey said.

Rao's suit is seeking back pay, front pay, lost benefits, compensatory damages for humiliation, mental anguish and other pain and suffering, punitive damages, attorney fees and court costs.