A Connecticut personal injury attorney known for her highway billboard advertisements is suing her former employer, claiming he doctored an image of her to make it sexually explicit, and then shared it with other employees.
Brooke Goff, founding attorney of the West Hartford-headquartered Goff Law Group, filed the civil complaint in Superior Court in August against Eric Reinken, owner of The Reinken Law Firm in Stamford.
Goff worked there between 2009 and 2016, initially as a paralegal and later as an attorney, before she left and founded her own firm.
The complaint, dated Aug. 24, claims an attorney at the Reinken firm, Frank Zachmar, in June 2025 sent a real photo of Goff in a firm-wide text message, and made derogatory comments about her.
The litigation claims Reinken, in response, took that photograph and created a digital alteration which depicted Goff holding a penis or phallic object, with an unknown substance on her face.
According to the complaint, another attorney at the firm, Danielle DiBerardini-Albrecht, viewed the altered photo, and commented, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
The lawsuit claims Zachmar then made a comment implying Goff had never held a penis before.
The lawsuit, filed by Goff's attorney, Jared Alfin of Hassett & George in Simsbury, asserts Reinken distributed the altered, sexually explicit image via the text message group chat to multiple employees of his law firm. The ensuing comments were also on the group chat for other employees to see, the lawsuit states.
"The altered photograph falsely portrayed (Goff) as engaging in conduct of a sexually explicit nature and falsely characterized her personal life and sexual conduct," the lawsuit states. "The accompanying comment reinforced the false portrayal by making explicit false statements regarding plaintiff's sexual orientation and sexual experience."
An employee at the firm subsequently shared the messages with Goff, according to the lawsuit.
Goff then informed Reinken she had received the text messages.
"Reinken's very first response showed no concern for the plaintiff's emotional well-being, made no effort to condemn or distance himself from the communications, and offered no initial apology," the lawsuit states.
Instead, it claims Reinken asked Goff who had sent her the messages.
Reinken later sent an email apologizing to Goff, according to the lawsuit.
"Reinken's written apology (to Goff) clearly demonstrates that he authored and intentionally disseminated the defamatory, inappropriate and outrageously disgusting text message to third parties," the lawsuit states.
As a licensed attorney, Goff's professional reputation is of paramount importance to her career and livelihood, according to the lawsuit, which says the doctored image and comments subjected her to "ridicule, contempt and humiliation."
Reinken, who was admitted to the bar in 1981, said of the lawsuit, "The case is meritless."
The lawsuit, which claims defamation and false light invasion of privacy, seeks compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $15,000, and a pre-judgment remedy of $350,000.
A pretrial status conference is scheduled for Oct. 22 in Superior Court in Hartford.
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