A New York Police Department captain who has already been sued twice for allegedly abusing female officers was hit with two fresh lawsuits after he was the subject of an NBC News investigation into sexual harassment and gender discrimination in big-city law enforcement.
Capt. Salvatore Marchese now stands accused of sexual harassment or gender discrimination in four cases since 2013. The 2013 case, which involved an officer who alleged he forced her to perform oral sex, was settled for $100,000, documents show. In August 2022, he was sued for allegedly harassing a pregnant officer and forcing her to work overnight shifts.
The two new lawsuits filed Wednesday against Marchese and the city allege that Marchese berated female underlings — including a lieutenant — for being pregnant or having to take care of their children. There was no admission of wrongdoing in the case that was settled and Marchese has denied wrongdoing in response to all of the suits.
The NYPD promoted Marchese to captain in 2018 and assigned him to run stationhouses in Manhattan and the Bronx, NYPD personnel records show.
“It’s really outlandish how they keep letting this man go from command to command, treating people this way,” said former Lt. Ebony Huntley, a plaintiff in one of the two new suits. The single mom, who as a Black female lieutenant was a rarity in the NYPD, said she retired early to escape Marchese’s abuse.
“Shame on this department for allowing that to happen,” Huntley said.
A December NBC News investigation found that the NYPD along with some of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies are rife with sexual harassment and gender discrimination against female officers. Reviews of more than 60 lawsuits that were settled or won at trial since 2017, thousands of pages of internal police documents and interviews with female officers, across ranks, found that women who speak out often lose their careers, while many men face little consequences.
Of the 87 NYPD…
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