Nicosia couple say false allegations about house party are destroying their family, Mary Nicosia admits to racist Twitter account

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — The couple that threw a political party at their East Avenue home doesn’t apologize for the party. The party prompted a Rochester firefighter to sue the RFD and city of Rochester and the fallout cost a fire captain his career.

Dr. Nicholas and Mary Nicosia say some of the depictions and allegations spelled out in the firefighter’s lawsuit are false and the couple says the allegations in the lawsuit have destroyed their lives.

Two weeks ago, the Nicosia’s were named in a lawsuit by firefighter Jerrod Jones who says he was compelled to go to the Nicosia party by his captain. The lawsuit alleges the party mocked the Juneteenth holiday which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and included racist tropes like fried chicken.

“The allegations of this narrative have caused my family almost unbearable pain,” Mary Nicosia said at a news conference in a conference room at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Bushnell’s Basin.

“Our children are being attacked on social media. Cancel culture can be cruel,” Nick Nicosia said wiping tears from his eyes. “It took me 32 years to build my reputation and less than two hours to destroy it.”

Attorney Cory Hogan showed photos of the Nicosia house.

“You will see this event was a political event,” Hogan said. “There is absolutely no racism anywhere.”

But the photos of Donald Trump and party tables, a Juneteenth poster and corn hole game that were shown were actually staged last week to depict what the party looked like. The party happened on July 7th.

Brean: “So it was re-created?”

Hogan: “I asked the clients to set it up so that I have an accurate understanding of what was where.”

Brean: “Mr. Hogan can you share actual pictures of the party?”

Hogan: “I don’t have any. I don’t know that there were any. I can find out.”

Brean: “Mary were there pictures, actual pictures of the party?”

Mary Nicosia: “I didn’t take any pictures.”

“What I had to experience a month ago, it cut me very deeply,” said firefighter Jerrod Jones when his lawsuit was filed two weeks ago.

In his lawsuit against the RFD and city of Rochester, Jones says being forced to go to the party at the Nicosia home and then later being assigned to work with the same captain who took him there created a hostile work environment and discriminated against him.

“I challenge you, the press, look into their backgrounds,” attorney Hogan said. “Find anything they’ve done in their lives, their 50 plus year lives that’s racist.”

Well, 25 minutes later, Hogan said this: “Mary Nicosia has a twitter account. It’s racist.”

“In full disclosure, I do have a Twitter parody account that operates under a veil of a persona and I have made blatantly racist comments under that persona,” Mary Nicosia said.

Nicosia said that’s part of the “charm” of Twitter but immediately said she hesitated to use the word charm.

Nicosia apologized and said her husband didn’t know about the account.

“But nonetheless I hold myself accountable. I am ashamed. It wasn’t an easy thing to do, to get up here and tell you this,” she said. “And I ask that you accept my apology as it is sincere.”

Attorney Hogan tried to explain that what you post on Twitter and how you behave in real life can be different.

The lawyer for Jerrod Jones tweeted “The Nicosia’s verified everything in our complaint. In addition, they verified that they operate a racist Twitter account. We will use their press conference as evidence going forward.”

Dr. Nicosia has one year to decide if he wants to file a defamation lawsuit.