43
Female police officer alleges gender discrimination by YPD superiors
YOUNGSTOWN
A city police officer on Monday filed a lawsuit alleging that her superiors discriminated against her because she is a woman.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the Northern District Court of Ohio, Eastern Division, and was first obtained by The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, 21 WFMJ-TV, names Detective Sgt. Patricia Garcar as the plaintiff and the city, Police Chief Robin Lees, police Capt. Rod Foley and two unnamed “John Does” as defendants. The suit alleges civil-rights violations, invasion of Garcar’s privacy and “intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
Reached by The Vindicator Monday night, Lees deferred comment to the city law department. City Law Director Martin Hume could not be reached for comment.
According to the filing, Garcar began working for YPD in 1994 and was promoted to sergeant in 2000. She has been a detective in the accident investigation unit since 1998, the filing states.
Garcar previously filed charges of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and earlier this year received notice from the EEOC that she could file a lawsuit based on a gender and retaliation complaint, according to court documents. Garcar is awaiting an EEOC notice on another charge, according to the filing.
Specifically, Garcar alleges that the head of YPD’s traffic unit, Lt. William Ross, “began to cause problems for Detective Garcar based on her gender” when he arrived at the accident investigation unit in 2011. Ross took “negative employment action against Detective Garcar that consisted of write-ups and unwarranted discipline through 2014,” according to the lawsuit.
The filing goes on to state that Garcar filed a grievance in 2014 related to suspensions she received and which she says were “unwarranted and issued based on discrimination and retaliation.” Garcar further alleges that complaints she made to Foley, then police chief, and later Lees once he became chief in 2014, “resulted in no response or corrective action.”
Garcar alleges that her complaints about Ross “resulted in further negative employment action against her in terms of unwarranted write-ups and discipline.”
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that in July 2014, Garcar “was informed by Chief Lees that he was in receipt of her May 2014 EEOC charge and that he was transferring her from YPD’s” accident investigation unit to its family service investigative unit.
Then, in February 2015, according to the filing, Garcar was informed that she would be promoted to lieutenant.
Shortly thereafter, “this promotion was inexplicably rescinded based on claimed restructuring in the YPD. Detective Garcar was qualified for the position of lieutenant, and her removal constitutes a negative employment action against” her, the suit alleges.
The filing goes on to detail other instances of alleged discrimination against Garcar and another EEOC complaint she filed. She alleges that the “disparate treatment, harassment and hostility” against her are ongoing.
Among the actions Garcar asks the court to take are: Declare the city to be in violation of a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and all defendants to be in violation of state civil-rights laws; issue a permanent injunction against “the unlawful employment practices committed by defendants”; give her back pay, lost benefits and “other losses in an amount to be proven at trial; reinstate Garcar as lieutenant; award her “compensatory damages”; award her front pay “in an amount to be determined at the time of trail in lieu of reinstatement.”
She also requests a jury trial.