An NYPD employee claims she confronted retaliation and discrimination after she begged to be reassigned after an alleged home violence assault, she claims in a fiery new lawsuit.
Fingerprint tech Santio Williams claimed the mistreatment started when she requested a transfer from NYPD headquarters at 1 Police Plaza to keep away from any future interactions along with her alleged abuser.
Her request was not solely denied, however her police supervisors despatched her to as a substitute work at a division identified for its abuse, harassment and micro-managing, her swimsuit states.
When her sister died in October and Williams requested for bereavement depart together with a loss of life certificates, her supervisor demanded she return with a funeral program displaying an inventory of siblings “to show that [Williams] is a member of the family,” her swimsuit states, one thing that isn’t required by the division.
“It’s like a torture chamber,” Williams advised The Submit. “It’s a case of retaliation.”
The each day harassment has led to extreme stress, nervousness and panic assaults so extreme that first-responders had been referred to as at the least twice, she claims within the lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom in November.
The swimsuit follows an analogous authorized motion filed in October by a Staten Island detective who claimed she confronted each day harassment and racism at her precinct after she requested for an lodging as a single mom.
“The NYPD persistently disregards New York Metropolis regulation by retaliating towards staff who request lodging,” mentioned lawyer John Scola, who filed each of the current fits.
“In a disturbing contradiction of its mission to forestall home violence, the division refused to offer a essential lodging to an worker looking for safety from a home abuser after which retaliated towards her for looking for security,” Scola advised The Submit.
A spokesperson for the NYPD advised The Submit that the division “doesn’t tolerate discrimination in any type and is dedicated to respectful work environments for our various workforce,” and declined to remark additional on pending litigation.
After Williams allegedly fled her bodily abusive husband and moved right into a home violence shelter final 12 months, police leaders advised her that there weren’t another areas for fingerprint techs for the time being, she claimed.
However Williams had been working out-of-title as a police administrative aide — a higher-ranking civilian place — since a couple of months after she joined up in spring 2023, and will have been relocated simply as an aide, her swimsuit claims,
“After I turned homeless, I requested for the affordable lodging,” Williams recalled, “And [when]I used to be advised I can’t get it, I argued: I mentioned, why can’t I get it after I’m not even working as a fingerprint technician?
“That didn’t rub them the best approach,” she mentioned, and Williams quickly obtained a letter denying her request.
On the identical day, she was allegedly transferred again to the fingerprint division, forcing her to work again “in title,” Williams mentioned.
“Why, for safety causes, I couldn’t be accommodated, out of [NYPD’s] obligation of care to me, to switch me away from this space?” she recalled.
Williams mentioned when she was first employed on the NYPD in Might 2023 — with a protracted work historical past from her longtime residence of London with regulation enforcement, “educated in forgery, skilled in investigations and intelligence, behavioral profiling, and safeguarding,” her swimsuit states.
She made the hiring staff properly conscious of her childcare duties for her two children — ages 3 and eight — and requested for a daytime tour, which the division gladly accommodated.
“I used to be even advised that I used to be overqualified,” Williams mentioned, and he or she recalled that she solely took the lower-ranking job beneath the fingerprinting title as a result of she was advised there can be some retirements quickly for increased positions she certified for.
After a month, Williams was transferred to the Prison Data Unit at 1 Police Plaza, the place she started working as a PAA out-of-title with no pay enhance, she advised The Submit. She had additionally handed her PAA civil service examination with excessive marks, based on her lawsuit.
For the following few months, she was counseled for her work ethic, the swimsuit claims.
Williams mentioned her job was “a protected haven” after the alleged abuse by the hands of her husband, an American she met whereas on trip in Jamaica. She moved to the town in 2019 along with her husband as a sponsor, she claimed.
The abuse started as verbal — however then turned bodily, Willaims claimed, and turned to superiors as a result of she didn’t know what to do.
“We used to vent about it day by day till issues bought actually dangerous,” Williams recalled, then her supervisor advised her: “No, you needed to do one thing about it,” and gave her a pamphlet for a home violence shelter.
“He was so unpredictable. The one approach I might think about being protected was being away from him,” she claimed to The Submit.
When her case employee advised her she ought to attempt to work in a unique zip code to make it tougher for her husband to search out her, that’s when she requested for an lodging — requests for that are dealt with by a completely completely different staff, she mentioned.
However her denial and transfer again to the fingerprinting workplace, the place she had labored beforehand for just a few weeks, was simply the beginning of the retaliation, based on her claims.
The workplace was not a protected haven for her, and her supervisor didn’t simply lack a receptive ear, however was decided to ostracize her fully, Williams claimed.
“Everybody was very stiff-necked,” she advised The Submit, and mentioned her new supervisor wouldn’t even face her when she needed to converse.
Williams, whose duties meant she was not often at her desk for a lot of the day, mentioned the supervisor would simply drop work on her desk and never inform her — leaving her at nighttime — and would exclude her from office-wide emails about image day or that everybody was purported to put on pink for some coordinated occasion, she mentioned.
“Even on bring-your-child-to-work day, my request to deliver my youngster was denied,” Williams mentioned.
Williams mentioned the harassment bought extra overt when her supervisor made onerous requests for medical documentation of any sick days or physician appointments — a requirement not “set by the NYPD Medical Division or anticipated of another worker,” the lawsuit states.
She even allegedly refused a COVID take a look at end result printed on letterheaded paperwork — which despatched Williams over the sting.
“I had a extreme panic assault — EMS was referred to as,” she mentioned. “It had simply grow to be so hostile… It was one factor after one other.”
“I began to have complications, abdomen aches, I’d lay in mattress excited about waking up the following morning to go to work,” Williams mentioned. “It had grow to be a nightmare…and it’s onerous to cover that kind of feeling when you will have two small children.”
Twice her supervisor allegedly wrote her up for tardiness for being one minute late getting back from a break, and one other time in September, claiming that she by no means knowledgeable them of an occasion the place her lunch ran over when, Williams mentioned.
“I used to be livid as a result of that is distorting info,” Williams mentioned, “like, this was not what occurred.
When Williams confronted her supervisor, she acknowledged Willams had advised her about it, based on the claims.
“I mentioned: you’re focusing on me,” Williams mentioned. “I mentioned: this doesn’t appear proper. That is harassment.”
Williams mentioned she thinks it’s a case of “emotional administration,” and mentioned she hopes the brand new NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch can enhance issues.
“You’ve gotten managers who they will’t handle with their feelings,” Williams mentioned, “they don’t make the best selections, and it’s part of the chain of command.”
“When you will have an emotional supervisor who simply appears like: ‘I don’t like this particular person,’ so no matter they wish to make their life a residing hell, they may do.”
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