May 9, 2005 -- A high-end Chelsea gym has been slapped with a $25,000 lawsuit claiming that gay love is rampant in the locker room and that the club's staff has been unable to stop the steamy high jinks. Carlos Sosa, 34, of Manhattan says he expected the posh David Barton Gym on West 23rd Street to be the normal exercise center its management says it is. But he says he was shocked to see men performing love acts on each other in the shower, ogling him in the locker room and leering at him as he changed clothes. "The gym misrepresented what they are all about," said Sosa's lawyer, Brian Kennedy. "They represented themselves as a serious place where you actually work out - but it became a saucy steam room that reminds me of the ancient Roman baths." The David Barton Gym was hailed as one of the city's hottest new workout centers when it opened last year in a building that had housed the YMCA that reputedly inspired the famous Village People gay anthem. "They needed a security guard to monitor the showers, the locker room and the steam room," Sosa told The Post. "If that's not peculiar, I don't know what is." A lawyer for David Barton, Tom Shanahan, blasted the suit as "frivolous and without merit" and said his client runs a clean establishment. Matt Dillon, Susan Sarandon, Calvin Klein have all been spotted at the upscale gyms run by Barton, who is married to socialite Suzanne Bartsch. Sosa claims he first noticed the loveual frolicking in November, a few weeks after he started exercising at the gym, which charged him a $950 membership fee. He said that one day, as he was walking into the shower area, he spotted an employee calling out to someone in a stall. He said he saw men getting it on through a gap between two stalls. "These guys were doing something to each other," he said. "You could see it in silhouette." Sosa said he was so disturbed by the experience - and other times when men came on to him - he was afraid to use gym amenities such as the steam room. He claimed he saw gym employees trying to stop the shenanigans, but said their efforts were ineffectual. "Now I'm really uncomfortable, and I'm paying for this," he said. "I felt I had to avoid the steam room because God knows if I'll step on something I don't want to step on." He claims the last straw came in January, when a man approached him the locker room while it was empty, sat uncomfortably close to him and leered at him. Sosa claims he soon asked to be let out of his gym contract but was refused. He said that after several attempts to work out the matter, he decided to bring the civil suit, which was filed in Manhattan last week. Barton spokeswoman Diane Briskin said the gym does not allow loveual activity, which is a violation of city health codes. "The membership contract clearly states that such behavior is not tolerated," she said. Sosa is seeking his membership fee back, and $25,000 for emotional distress.
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