NYPD cop claims female boss grabbed his crotch in sexual harassment case
An NYPD cop has filed a sexual harassment complaint against his boss, claiming that she grabbed his crotch.
An NYPD cop has filed a sexual harassment complaint against his boss, claiming that she grabbed his crotch.
NYPD Officer Risel Martinez filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint on Oct. 13 saying that while he was part of the gun range ballistic vest unit, his boss touched him inappropriately and made several comments about his bodybuilding physique.
Martinez said that his boss, Sgt. Laverne Wilson-Valis, had made things “a little weird” after he was transferred in May 2016.
“So we’d be there and then she’d make comments like, ‘Wow, Martinez, you’re getting bigger, you’re getting stronger,’ and I’d be like, OK, thank you?'” Martinez said.
He recalled how at one point, when he was moving bulletproof vests around a trailer, Wilson-Valis spotted a bodybuilding magazine that just happened to be there and asked if it was his before she molested him.
“Now she puts her hand on my groin area, and then she places her hand right above my butt,” Martinez recalled. “She pushes me back, looks at my penis — like, directly at my penis — and then pushes me forward and looks at my butt.”
Martinez claimed that another officer arrived and saw what happened.
“And when I look at her, she just steps back, puts her hands up and giggles. I was just so confused,” he said.
Martinez said that he reported the incident, which occurred in January, but that he was not transferred out until 30 days later. He decided to take his complaint to the EEOC after Wilson-Valis was only required to go to a professionalism seminar after an investigation into her actions.
