Hiding in Plain Sight: Good cops and the same story

"You were told that you do not rat out another cop. Your worst nightmare would be turning in another cop."


---Daisy Boria, former NYPD officer on 60 Minutes in 1999.





New York City

Bronx Division

1990s





During her tenure as a police officer working in the Bronx division, Officer Daisy Boria said she was sexually harassed by male officers. She finally filed a law suit against the department in 1995.

Among the allegations she made against male officers in the division were the following.



(excerpt, New York Times)



In one instance, according to the complaint, male officers in the 46th Precinct heated an interior dome light in a squad car and shaped it into a woman's breast, then wrote the names of several female officers on it.

The complaint by the officer, Daisy Boria, also said that male officers made a second-floor lounge in the station house into a viewing area for sexually explicit videos and cable television programs, and used the women's locker room to take naps.

Police officials refused to comment on the specifics of the complaint, which was filed with the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Manhattan. Robert K. Cividanes, a police spokesman, said, "The matter is a subject of civil litigation, and we won't be discussing the details."

Officer Boria, 36, a 12-year veteran of the force, said that crude drawings of male and female genitalia were scrawled on roll-call pages and in memorandum books of female officers, as well as on the posters explaining the citywide policy banning sexual harassment. She also said that female officers have sometimes been hampered in their ability to do their jobs.

The complaint also accused Officer Boria's male colleagues of directing profane and sexually explicit remarks at female officers when the women initiate radio transmissions.

"The one that has me really worried has been the jamming of my radio transmissions, which is very dangerous," said Officer Boria, referring to the two-way radios that officers rely on to request assistance and keep in touch with other officers.





But Boria had other problems, she said and one major one was that she broke the Code of Silence while testifying in court. This plus the law suit for sexual harassment made her a pariah in the department to the point where no one would talk to her or back her up on calls.

During the trial in question, Boria had testified that a man that her partner had killed with a chokehold while he was resisting arrest had actually been lying prone on the ground not moving at all when it happened. Her version conflicted with that given by other officers and ultimately, the jury acquitted her partner.


But she would do it again, she said. Both times. For her, it wasn't about a choice. It was about telling the truth.




(excerpt, New York Times)



The answer comes in two parts. First about the lawsuit, in which she says that she and other policewomen are routinely subjected to sexual harassment: ''I'm trying to tell the department that things are seriously wrong, to point to a lot of people being hurt.''

As for her testimony in the Livoti case, Ms. Boria said she simply told the truth: ''I don't think anything can happen to me if I'm walking with the truth. If I would have lied, then I would be losing sleep.''

That is not always the way of the department. Officers learn to protect themselves and each other. ''They teach it to you,'' she said. ''They tell you 'Have a story.' It's almost like teaching you it's O.K. to lie.''




After her testimony, she was treated like a "rat", the worse of all things a police officer could be. It didn't help that she had testified in a similar case being tried by the United States Attorney's office where the prosecutor said officers who backed the account of the officer who killed Baez were likely committing perjury.

Boria had testified that an impromptu meeting had taken place in a parking lot between officers to initially pin Baez' death on a Black civilian passing by. If an officer's decision to use force which leads to an incustody death is justified, why then conspire to blame it on someone else? A person who may or may not exist, except as a reliable racist stereotype that few in law enforcement will question? But if it's a bad incident involving criminal misconduct that was never meant to come to light, why not pin the actions of an officer on a member of a race profiled by the department as being criminal? After all, it nearly worked for Susan Smith.

So Boria testified to that and to what she actually saw that evening. She insisted that a distant family link she had to the victim was not a factor in her version of events.



(excerpt, New York Times)



''That's the language,'' she said matter-of-factly yesterday, sitting in her lawyer's office for a hesitant and closely monitored interview. ''It's made known to you. People stop talking to you. You're treated differently. There is nothing lower than a rat."




Well known Columnist Nat Hentoff wrote this column published in the Village Voice in 1999 about Boria and another well-known whistleblower in the NYPD. The subject of his column was how the greatest danger a police officer might face on the job is another police officer. Former NYPD officer, Frank Serpico who had said that he hoped the day would come when a corrupt officer had more to fear from an honest one than vice versa was mentioned. Serpico's revelations of police corruption and misconduct gave him a bullet in the cheek and life-saving assistance not from other police officers but from an elderly man.



(excerpt)



The reality is Daisy Boria. For 16 years, she was a New York City police officer who, Bradley noted, "routinely turned a blind eye to what she saw-everything from police officers who stole money from drug dealers to cops who assaulted civilians without provocation."

Finally, however, Daisy Boria temporarily broke through the wall. She was present when fellow officer Francis Livoti-infuriated because Anthony Baez accidentally hit Livoti's police car with a football-put a choke hold on Baez and killed him.

She testified against Livoti at his trial-where other police officers who had been at the scene earnestly absolved Livoti of any unlawful conduct. The presiding judge, Gerald Sheindlin, after hearing those other cops, said openly that there was a "nest of perjury" in that courtroom. But Sheindlin did nothing about it. The faithful guardians of the blue wall of silence went back to the streets, and Livoti was acquitted.

Later, he was convicted in a federal court and now is justly in prison. And U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White is investigating that nest of police perjury.

After telling the truth, Daisy Boria, as she said on 60 Minutes, received death threats and was no longer backed up on jobs by other cops. Fearing those threats, she wore a bulletproof vest everywhere, except at home. Her superiors knew what was going on and had her locker checked for bombs on every hour. But the terrorism went on. It was not stopped by police brass even though everyone in the precinct was aware that Daisy Boria was afraid for her life. It could have been stopped by the department's Internal Affairs Division, which is supposed to detect police lawlessness.



But too often in cases like this one and in many racial and sexual harassment cases, the involved agency's internal affairs division becomes a retaliatory tool against the complainant or whistle blower. Even in Riverside, officers like Rene Rodriguez, Roger Sutton, Christine Keers related in their law suits and through depositions that they felt more harassed by the internal affairs division than assisted by its "investigations" of their allegations. Kelsey Metzler who filed her law suit last year mentioned in it that an internal affairs representative was in the room when she was terminated and having asked why she was being fired, was told they didn't have to tell her and that they didn't like her.

In some cases, since supervisors who oversaw that division were subjects of some of the allegations, it's questionable whether that division should have been doing the investigating at all. There should be a separate procedure in place if that's the case.

According to the article, Boria received a disability retirement, not an uncommon fate for whistle blowers in a profession ill equipped to handle them, and moved out of state. Following her, she said, were phone calls which she would answer only to find out that the person would hang up. Her former partner was sent to federal prison, hence the phone calls.


Serpico moved out of the country. He also spoke with Hentoff on one of his return visits to the city where he had once policed both the residents and his own kind.



(excerpt)


Serpico left the force and went abroad for a long time. He came back last year to testify at a City Council hearing on police brutality and corruption. He told me that as he went into the room, he passed some young cops who were on duty. They might have been in diapers when Serpico testified before the Knapp Commission in 1971.

They looked at Serpico with icy hatred. Once a "rat," always a "rat."

"Nothing has changed," Serpico said to me.





Another NYPD officer, Gloria Gonzalez was awarded $1.25 million by a federal jury, according to the New York Times after filing her law suit.

In its decision, the jury didn't determine that she had been sexually harassed as she had alleged but did decide that she had been retaliated against and forced to resign from the department.



(excerpt)



''I think the jury recognized that the city's conduct concerning the method in which it handled Gloria Gonzalez's case was unprofessional and retaliatory,'' said Norman A. Senior, one of her lawyers.

A significant witness for Ms. Gonzalez was a former Police Department investigator, Adam Alvarez, who had been assigned to pursue the disciplinary case against her in 1996. He testified that he had been pressured by Michael A. Markman, the department's former chief of personnel, to ''expedite'' the case and that at least six police units had been assigned at one point or another to internal investigations of the officer.

In court, city lawyers characterized Mr. Alvarez as a disgruntled former employee who had filed his own lawsuit against the department.

Mr. Markman was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit and could not be reached for comment.

After the verdict, Ms. Gonzalez, in the press room of Police Headquarters, expressed her satisfaction. ''I feel vindicated,'' she said, ''but not completely, because the sexual harassment did exist. But I am happy that they did find the retaliation, because it was immense, it was overwhelming, it was something that no human being should go through.''


In 2000, the city also settled with former deputy commissioner, Sandra M. Marsh for $1 million. Marsh was allegedly forced out of her job when she refused to change what she wrote in a report criticizing police employees for the handling of sexual harassment investigations. The settlement came after the city had closed its wallet after paying a group of 24 Black male officers in the department $1.5 million after these officers alleged that their transfers to a Brooklyn Station after the incident involving the torture of Abner Louima was discriminatory.





An interesting position paper by Christopher C. Cooper on the challenges of prosecuting police misconduct related to corruption is here. Several obstacles he mentions in his article are the fact that county prosecutors have too close relationships with law enforcement agencies and that internal investigative mechanisms often have too close relationships with the department's culture to do what they were intended to do.


At any rate, there's been sexual harassment cases filed by female law enforcement officers against their male counterparts, be they peers or supervisors, in many other places and much more recently. Too many of them.

Here are a handful of recent cases.



In 2006, a law enforcement agency in Florida was sued by a female police officer who alleged that she was sexually harassed, according to the Miami Herald.


(excerpt)


Golden Beach town attorney Stephen Helfman said he had not reviewed the case, nor had he met with the council, so he didn't know how the town planned to proceed.

''The process hasn't really begun in knowing what the actual claim even is,'' Helfman said.

The incident of sexual harassment occured last July in the Golden Beach police station roll-call room in front of officers Oscar Santana and Kathryn Deeds.
The victim said she was getting ready to go on patrol when officer Orlando Martinez bent her over to face a table, held her gun belt and pulled it back and forth several times simulating a sexual act.

The female officer also told an internal affairs investigator that there had been other times when Martinez made inappropriate sexual comments.

She said two weeks before the physical incident she, Martinez and Santana were in the roll-call room and Martinez asked her if she liked Raisinettes. When she said yes, Martinez replied: ``Well, I will shave my b---s and I will dip them in chocolate and you will have a mouthful.''



However, Martinez, who allegedly was the harasser, apparently wanted to clarify what he actually said to Santana during that incident.


(excerpt)


Martinez told the investigator that what he recalled saying was: ``Well if I dip my n--s in chocolate, you know, would you eat 'em?''



Also allegedly facing sexual harassment in a Florida law enforcement agency are a female officer from the Tampa Bay Police Department who asked to be transferred out of an elite unit, alleging she was harassed by five male police officers, according to Tampa Bay 10.

Officer Martha Gearity, a member of the all-male anti-crime street unit described her experiences working in that unit and the department.


(excerpt)


"To be involved in this type of behavior the behavior is outrageous it's highly unacceptable it's unbecoming a police officer and it's a sad day at TPD that we're even standing her discussing it." The behavior according to the investigation includes constant flagellation, belching and excessive sexual joking by male officers.

It says quote "officer Gearity said that they talked about anal sex, they watched pornographic movies at work, talked about their sex lives in the open, made reference to her menstruation, joked about having homosexual relations with one another in graphic detail and took pictures of a penis with a camera phone."

Those involved include Officer Gregory Cotner, Officer David Duncan, Officer Ryan Sigler, and their superiors Corporal David Watt and Sergeant Gene Strickland.



That same year, Michelle Zanes, an officer with the Atlantic City Police Department filed a similar law suit involving sexual harassment.



(excerpt, Atlantic City Press )


Beginning in January 2000 and continuing through 2002, Sgt. Anthony Pherribo allegedly harassed Zanes because of her gender. He allegedly singled her out and in one instance “spooned her” by rubbing against her from behind and also did other improper, sexually offensive acts to the plaintiff, the lawsuit reads. Pherribo was characterized in the lawsuit as engaging in “a pattern of sexual harassment.”

The lawsuit lists other officers who are accused of harassing the female officer. Zanes said one member of the department followed her home from a police event and tried to kiss her. Another allegedly became angry when she would not sleep with him and yelled at her. In one incident, an officer took a banana off Zane's desk and shoved it in her mouth while co-workers snickered, the lawsuit reads.

Atlantic City Solicitor Kim Baldwin said the case is without merit. She said Mooney is the main defendant because of a personal vendetta Van Syoc has against the chief for a prior lawsuit in which Mooney's name was dismissed.

She said Zanes' lawsuit was unexpected, considering the officer did not go to Internal Affairs to voice concerns about nearly all of the allegations she put forth in the suit.

“There are policies and procedures within the Police Department to report sexual harassment and other violations if someone feels they have been victimized,” Baldwin said. “Ms. Zanes made one allegation a number of years ago which was fully investigated. She never made any other allegations until she filed this lawsuit. She knows of the process to report violations, but she chose not to use it, which calls into question whether these other incidents ever occurred.”



Of course another possiblity could have been is that Zanes didn't trust the internal mechanism of investigation employed by the department to be fair and impartial. If this was the case as it often is, then it's not surprising that she looked outside for an advocate like so many female officers have and do.






In Texas earlier this year, a female police officer Levelland Police Department for sexual harassment over a period of several years. Like in most cases, the local governmental body has chosen to back the department. Another reason for female officers to rush off to utilize the inhouse process for redress.



And earlier last month, two female police officers who had worked for the Concord Police Department filed law suits alleging sexual harassment, according to the Contra Costa Times.



(excerpt)



Dale claims that Richey, a sergeant who at the time of the allegations in 2006 was the traffic division supervisor, engaged in sexually explicit banter with other male officers during formal briefings. Dale says Richey talked about underwear, with particular attention to the placement of the "pouch" and engaged others about their sexual experiences, according to the lawsuit.
Dale says she was punished for complaining about such talk, forced at one point to spend six hours outside in the rain at a drunken driving checkpoint, as the only officer assigned to approach drivers. Officers usually work checkpoints in shifts, she claims.

She says that after she complained about this and other things, Lt. Andrew Gartner defended Richey's alleged conduct. Eventually, she says, she became so distraught that she had no alternative but to quit her job in September.

She claims that while at the department, male officers frequently said that women were not capable of performing the duties of a police officer and that the culture around the department became increasingly hostile toward women.




It's likely that this department's climate will increase in hostility until it's pushed to stop that behavior and stop harassing or promoting the harassment or in the case of at least one of its supervising lieutenants, stop condoning the harassment. But changing cultures which allow even encourage this form of behavior doesn't happen overnight even when there's a strong will to commit to the process of making necessary changes if that's even present at all.



Also last year, the Aspen Police Department's chief stepped down after being investigated for sexually harassing female officers in his department.




Reading these and the many other cases that are out there, it's pretty disgusting to think that there are grown men entrusted with badges and guns which were given to them with the expectation that these men possessed maturity and professionalism, running around engaging in such juvenile, sexist behavior against women in the workplace simply because they don't want them there.



And that's what it's really all about. It's not about the women being attractive or not. It's not about trying to hook up with a co-worker in the workplace or complimenting, flattering, or "she should be so thankful that I'm paying her attention and when she says bug off, she's kidding right?" Maybe part of what is at work is the childish belief that a negative response to your behavior is really a sign that she likes you but that's a smaller part, evidence perhaps that those who engage in sexual harassment are in some ways socially immature.

But what it's really all about, is power. Sexual harassment isn't so much a means to an end but it's just another tool that men working in professions where they greatly outnumber women like is the case in law enforcement, fire fighting, mining, construction and others including the internet use to exert power and show that it's men who are still in control. In part, because perhaps the influx of more women into many of these professions makes them feel less in control? They feel like it's their turf that they are surrendering too much at a time, too quickly. That the working enviornment, their world is changing too fast.


Here are a list of profiles of sexual harassers in all different flavors. Here are some of the myths which circulate involving sexual harassment that still hinder its ability to be reported and also addressed.

But still, so many cases in different places all across the country, across time.



What's disappointing is that in too many of these cases, the supervisors who are supposed to set the standards for professionalism in a working environment that is supposed to be non-hostile, non-racist, non-sexist and non-homophobic are showing by inaction or even worse, retaliatory behavior against complainants how deeply entrenched racism, sexism and homophobia are in the cultures which essentially run their agencies. A behavior is often isolated, often labeled as being the work of "rogue" officers, "bad apples" or whatever you want to call them to show how much different they are from the rest of the crowd or the crop.

But the proof is often found most often in how this conduct is handled by those with the power and the mandate to define the working environment and how its misbehaviors will be addressed. That's ultimately where many of the failures lie.



Impact of Sexual Harassment




If most of these law enforcement agencies had the policies and procedures to report allegations of sexual harassment that they claimed to have and even more important (but often more lacking), a procedure in place that was enforced in a way that was unbiased, fair, impartial and just, then the cities and counties that oversee these law enforcement agencies wouldn't be paying thousands even millions to litigate and ultimately pay out either settlements or verdicts on these cases.


Penny Harrington and Kim Lonsway, the authors of Investigating Sexual Harassment in Law Enforcement stated that the benefits of preventing sexual harassment were many and created a list of strategic steps used as means of prevention.


(excerpt)


1. Design an effective sexual harassment policy and complaint procedure

2. Screen new applicants and supervisors for prior problems with sexual harassment and for appropriate attitudes and responses to the problem.

3. Inform employees about the problem of sexual harassment and the organzational policy through general means such as posters and memos.

4. Train employees through special programs on the topic of sexual harassment.

5. Enforce the sexual harassment policy with thorough investigations, appropriate disciplinary sanctions, and other corrective actions.

6. Rate the performance of supervisors in implementing the policies and procedures with respect to sexual harassment.

7. Provide resources for employees to handle problems with sexual harassment through ombudsperson programs, contact people, hotlines, and counseling services.

8. Evaluate the effectiveness of all sexual harassment programs, particularly training programs for employees and supervisors.







These seem like good measures to take, but how many law enforcement agencies have adopted them, or are doing anything at all? Probably not the ones which are being sued. But perhaps if they had these measures in place, the law suits which will cost the cities and counties which have to pay to litigate them with tax payer money would not be filed. But even though it makes good fiscal sense to address this issue headon, in many places it's either ignored or even worse, condoned either directly or through inaction.



Closer to home



One reason why the case involving Kelsey Metzler in Riverside is troubling, in large part because at the very least, it raises questions that weren't answered because the city was in a hurry to absolve itself on a technicality. It's only other response through its legal team was that the accused harasser and Metzler's academy supervisor didn't work for the police department or the city in any capacity.

So what was it? Was it a case of false allegations against a male cadet at the academy or was it a case of a city terminating a police officer on her first day of work because her prior filing of a sexual harassment potentially put the city at financial risk? Was the city concerned about what she might do if she was working as a police officer? If that's the case, then why and on what basis? Was the city concerned about similar complaints about the department that might be made by Metzler if she remained employed?

The lack of any real response to the allegations involving officers at the police department including the defendants by the city just clouds the issue further, which is unfortunate. However, it's not unique when it comes to what happens in other cases litigated in other places.







In Riverside, the long-awaited senior center will soon break ground for construction at Stratton Center in the Eastside. It's been a dream for many local residents since 1986. Now it hopefully will see reality.



(excerpt)



Work on the $1.9 million addition at Bordwell Park is expected to begin by the middle of this month, with the renovation completed by early fall, said Ralph Nuñez, the city's director of parks and recreation. The expansion includes a game room, arts and crafts room, library, offices, fitness room and restrooms. Money came from the Riverside Renaissance, a $1.8 billion initiative that seeks to accomplish 30 years of projects in five years.

The new center will help serve the growing senior population, Nuñez said.

"With the baby boomers getting older, the need for senior centers has increased dramatically," he said.

Juan Grijalva, 70, is part of a group of about a half-dozen who play pool daily at the center. He hopes the expanded facility will bring more seniors out.

"Seniors need places to come," Grijalva said between shots. "It gives them a chance to socialize and keeps them sane."

"A lot of seniors are shut in," said Charles Jolly, 63, of Riverside. "They're stuck in a rut. I think if they had something new to come to they would take advantage."








The family of Kathleen Savio, a woman who allegedly drowned in her own bathtub in 2004 has set up a Web site to seek tips from people about her death, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.


Kathleen "Kitty" Savio was the third wife of former Bolingbrook Police Department Sgt. Drew Peterson. After divorcing him, she did mysteriously in her own bathtub, a victim of an apparently accidental drowning. After Peterson's current wife, Stacey disappeared around Oct. 28 and hasn't been reported seen since, the circumstances behind Savio's death were reexamined. Her body was exhumed for two more autopsies and has been relabeled a homicide. Investigations are being conducted both into her death and to determine whether a coverup was done to mask it.



(excerpt, Web site)



About Us


We lost our beloved sister, daughter Kathleen Savio tragically in 2004 and we are still searching for answers and justice for her death anyone with any information please contact the Illinois state police at 1 815 740 0678.We will never give up our search she was last heard of on february 28 2004 and was found beaten and left dead in the bathtub of her home on march 1st 2004.




The family of Stacey Peterson released some family videos of happier times according to the Chicago Tribune.



(excerpt)


"I'm hoping for the people to see what a happy person she is and how family-oriented she is, how much family means for her," said Candace Aikin, Stacy's aunt in California. "And that if anybody has seen anything unusual around Oct. 28 they would please come forward."

Aikin also wanted to respond to Drew Peterson's claims that his 23-year-old wife left him and their children, possibly for another man.

"I just want to say if Stacy, if she's no longer with us, I just want to say she is in heaven with the Lord. That's where she would want to be if she can't be with her children," Aikin said. "And I want to thank all the people for praying, for the support and the searchers. That means so much to our family. We're praying for all those people. It means a lot to us as a family because we want to find her and we want closure."








In Riverside, the city council meetings will resume from the holiday hiatus on Tuesday, Jan. 8.


The Mayor's Nomination and Screening Committee meeting will take place a week later, on Jan. 15 at 11 am. Presumably the agenda will be the screening of applications to fill openings on the city's boards and commissions.


The Governmental Affairs Committee meeting is currently scheduled for Jan. 28 at 2:30p.m.


The Developmental Committee will meet Jan. 17 at 3 p.m.


Agendas for these meetings will be announced as they get closer.





Civil trials in Riverside will resume Jan. 14 in three impromptu courtrooms inside a former elementary school.




Coming soon: Riverside and the 15% solution.