Sep 5
2025
OTB approves sexual harassment lawsuit
- Share on
OTB’s Scott Kiedrowski. Photo courtesy of The Niagara Gazette.
The board of Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. has voted to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit involving Scott Kiedrowski, its No. 2 executive at the time of the alleged incidents, and the agency’s head of security.
The settlement, which awaits final court approval, involves payment of $135,000 to three female employees, two of whom contended management withheld tips from them when they worked as bartenders at the Batavia Downs casino and hotel.
The board resolution authorizing the settlement notes that the matter so far has cost OTB nearly $301,876 to litigate, and that the agency still has outstanding bills owed to the law firm the board hired to defend it against the women’s claims.
The settlement must still be approved in federal court. The parties are due for a hearing before Magistrate Judge Mark Pedersen on Sept. 30.
“The parties have reached an agreement in principle but it still requires court approval,” said Michael Dolce, an attorney for the three women. “Until it’s finalized in front of a court the agreement is not effective.”
Michael DeGeorge, an OTB spokesperson, did not respond to a request for further comment.
Kiedrowski remains employed at OTB and was recently awarded a pay raise. He now earns $195,700 annually. Kiedrowski did not return a phone call or text message seeking comment.
The lawsuit is not the first controversy involving Kiedrowski in recent years.
In June, Byron Brown, president and CEO, published a second iteration of his “reform agenda” that accused an unnamed OTB “officer” of enjoying $27,000 worth of free food and drinks at the agency’s bars and restaurants between 2021 and 2024. Sources later named Kiedrowski as that officer. Documents obtained by Investigative Post showed bartenders and other servers frequently comped drinks and meals for “Scott K’s friends.”
That same report also named Kiedrowski as paying the Batavia Downs hotel exterminator in cash, a practice that is not allowed for public agencies. The Brown administration has since implemented new rules and restrictions on spending and payments.
The lawsuit alleged that Kiedrowski and Daniel Wood, head of security for OTB, sexually harassed former bartender Tara Sweet.
According to the lawsuit, Wood’s advances toward Sweet began in October 2019.
“He frequently told [Sweet] that she is beautiful, she is a [hard worker], that they should run away together, that they should get married, and that her fiancé did not deserve her,” the lawsuit alleged.
The suit further claimed that Wood would hug Sweet and rub her back “without her consent.” His advances were so obvious that customers asked Sweet if the two were dating, she alleged.
The advances continued into 2023, Sweet claimed. On two occasions, according to the lawsuit, Wood texted Sweet to come to his office, first so he could give her a massage and then so she could nap on his couch.
The lawsuit claims Wood sexually harassed another female employee, too.
With regard to Kiedrowski, Sweet alleged that he invited her and other female employees to accompany him to Bills games, utilizing a suite paid for by OTB. She claimed in the lawsuit that the invitations made her uncomfortable but that she attended the games so as to not upset Kiedrowski.
She also claimed Kiedrowski regularly texted her late at night.
“Mr. Kiedrowski would regularly text [Sweet] late at night to hit on her, after she had gone home for the night,” the suit alleged. “Mr. Kiedrowski’s texts made [Sweet] feel uncomfortable.”
Sweet further alleged she was “scared and creeped out” when Kiedrowski texted her and asked her to bring him lunch in his office. He would “give her a big tip,” the suit claimed. Sweet “did not want to be alone with him,” but “was too scared to tell him ‘no.’ ”
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomIn court papers, OTB denied Wood and Kiedrowski acted inappropriately towards Sweet. A law firm OTB commissioned to investigate the matter concluded the claims made against Kiedrowski’s “could not be substantiated.”
With regard to the texts, Kiedrowski told OTB’s human resources director that he “probably did it,” but “did not do anything that was malicious or that he would consider to be sexual harassment.”
The lawsuit also alleged that OTB allowed salaried managers to share in the pool of tips left by customers when Sweet and two other women, Corinne Armison and Brooklynn Cline, were working bartending shifts. The suit alleges that practice amounted to wage theft. OTB attorney Ginger Schroder, in a 2023 letter, claimed that no additional compensation was owed to the bartenders.
The lawsuit alleges that OTB fired Sweet in retaliation for raising the issue with the tips.
The resolution approved by the OTB board stipulates that the $135,000 settlement “does not constitute an admission or finding of wrongdoing.”
OTB so far has paid $229,940 to Schroder, Joseph & Associates, the law firm that defended the agency, and another $71,936 to the firm Abrams Fensterman LLP to conduct “an evaluation of the sexual harassment and harassment-based retaliation claims,” according to the resolution.
The settlement comes as former OTB President and CEO, Henry Wojtaszek, a close ally of Kiedrowski, seeks to rejoin the agency as a member of the board.
