An NYPD lieutenant with the Inner Affairs Bureau repeatedly hit on a feminine sergeant who works beneath him, telling her she has “a pleasant rack” and demanding a lap dance, in response to a brand new lawsuit.
Sgt. Fizgeralda Sanchez joined the division in 2007 and went to work for IAB Lt. Ronald Reynolds in November 2024 at a unit within the Bronx. He instantly started asking Sanchez, 46, out to “breakfast, lunch and dinner” and quizzing her on her relationship standing, in response to the swimsuit.
Someday when she wore a tighter prime to work, he informed her she had “a pleasant rack,” in response to courtroom papers.
The harassment was so pervasive she was cautious “by no means to be left alone with him,” in response to the lawsuit.
However his alleged conduct continued, escalating on the unit’s Christmas social gathering at Russo’s on the Bay in Queens on Dec. 12, the place he informed her she was “good wanting, scorching and delightful,” in response to the lawsuit.
“On the desk he’s like, ‘You look so stunning, you look so scorching. Hey, do you wish to go to a strip with me?’” Sanchez alleged. “I used to be like, ‘Completely not.’ He got here again a pair minutes later and he’s like ‘Come to the strip membership and you’ll give me a lap dance.’”
After the social gathering, Sanchez started carrying totally different clothes to cowl her again and her entrance, the swimsuit claims.
“I’ve been carrying lengthy sweaters ever since,” she mentioned.
A couple of week earlier than the Christmas social gathering, he requested her to return to his workplace. When she arrived, he was watching a TV program that confirmed two folks having intercourse, in response to the swimsuit.
She “ran out of the workplace.” Per week after the Christmas social gathering he winked and requested her if she wished to return to his workplace once more, she alleged.
“It’s clear to her that he’s asking her to have intercourse with him in his workplace,” in response to the swimsuit.
However she refused to return to the workplace, and that’s when the retaliation started, in response to the lawsuit.
As much as that time, Sanchez, who got here to the unit after her 24-year-old daughter died, had Sunday and Monday off every week so she may get grief counseling at her church, she mentioned.
However Reynolds informed her he was altering her common days off to Fridays and Saturday, when the counseling was not obtainable. When she objected, he informed her she ought to “switch to the NYPD Information Room” downtown if she wished to maintain her shift, in response to the swimsuit.
In her lawsuit, Sanchez, who has 18 years on the job, asks for an undisclosed sum of money for ache and struggling. She stays on the job at IAB.
“After tragically shedding her daughter, our shopper sought a safer surroundings in Inner Affairs, solely to face relentless sexual harassment and retaliation,” lawyer John Scola mentioned.
“When she rejected her supervisor’s advances, he tried to switch her, disrupting the remedy the place she grieves — a switch she was solely in a position to cease by submitting this lawsuit.”
She referred to as the NYPD Equal Employment Alternative unit twice to file a criticism however they by no means returned her name, she mentioned.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch carried out an overhaul at IAB in December, making main modifications to the bureau’s management.
Reynolds refused to touch upon the lawsuit. The Lieutenants Benevolent Affiliation President Lou Turco defended Reynolds and referred to as the allegations “categorically unfaithful.” The NYPD launched a press release saying it “doesn’t tolerate sexual harassment” and is reviewing the lawsuit.
