Retired NYPD officer says in a lawsuit her commanding officer serially raped by means of her for greater than a yr

• A retired NYPD officer has accused her former commanding officer of raping her in a brand new lawsuit.

• The NYPD instructed Insider on Wednesday that the incident is “below inside overview.”

• Calls made to numbers related to the captain named within the lawsuit weren’t replied Wednesday.

A retired New York Town police officer accused her former commanding officer of serially raping her for greater than a yr whilst they labored in combination at the Yankee Stadium beat, consistent with a lawsuit filed in Bronx Best Courtroom on Monday.

Within the lawsuit seen by means of Insider, Gillian Roberts, who identifies as African-American, mentioned she was hoping to stick at the Yankee Stadium element till her retirement, however made up our minds to go away the dept early remaining month when she may just not maintain the tension of changing into an “unwilling intercourse slave” to her “perverted” captain, Jeffrey Brienza.

When reached for remark about Roberts’ lawsuit on Wednesday, an NYPD spokesman mentioned the “incident is below inside overview.” Insider also known as a number of numbers related to Brienza on Wednesday, however did not get a solution.

Roberts’ lawyer, Fred Lichtmacher, instructed Insider in an interview on Thursday that he expects extra ladies to return ahead quickly. He added {that a} “sexist” tradition exists on the NYPD, which left his shopper without a selection however to go away the dept.

“The NYPD has a coverage, now not mentioned however very a lot in impact, the place they give protection to their royalty,” Lichtmacher mentioned. “They circle their wagons the place there’s a criticism a few manager. You might be knocked down for those who pop out and say one thing a few manager. Gillian knew this and knew she needed to go away.”

Consistent with the lawsuit, Roberts joined the NYPD in 1998, and in March 2020, secured a switch to the Yankee Stadium Element, which is regarded as an “elite” place inside the division.

Quickly after becoming a member of the element, she mentioned her commanding officer, Brienza, began giving her preferential remedy — making feedback to realize her consider and separating her from the remainder of the unit by means of making her his non-public driving force.

Tale continues

Cornered in the toilet

A couple of months into the brand new task, in June 2020, Roberts mentioned she was once the usage of the toilet on the finish of her shift when Brienza adopted her into the room and grabbed her from in the back of “very forcefully and tightly.”

“Ms. Roberts yelled, ‘No!’ and attempted peeling her attacker’s fingers off of her, to which Captain Brienza replied by means of pronouncing, ‘Sure’ as he forcefully grew to become her round,” the lawsuit states. “Captain Brienza positioned his fingers round Ms. Roberts’ neck and compelled her head down in opposition to his waistline, the place his penis was once already out of his pants and erect, and compelled Ms. Roberts to accomplish oral intercourse with out coverage.”

Brienza then positioned Roberts “towards the counter and raped her vaginally without a coverage,” consistent with the lawsuit.

The lawsuit states Brienza started ceaselessly calling Roberts into his workplace the place he would “shove her head down, forcing her to accomplish unprotected oral intercourse.”

“This befell just about each recreation day for a yr, and maximum non-game days once they had been on accountability on the similar time when he would organize for them to be by myself,” the lawsuit says.

She says he would additionally often make her pressure him a definite direction house, and pull over alongside how you can make her carry out oral intercourse on him.

Threats towards her occupation

If Roberts attempted to keep away from Brienza, she mentioned he would assign her to unwanted posts and make feedback about how she “stood him up.”

Consistent with the lawsuit, Roberts “felt as although her occupation and smartly being had been at the line if she didn’t agree to the Captain’s repeated attacks of her.”

“As a result of his prime rank, Captain Brienza labored often on inside circumstances of proceedings, and went out of his method to remind Ms. Roberts that he ‘is aware of how this stuff finish,'” the lawsuit states.

“On multiple instance, Captain Brienza threatened Ms Roberts’ task by means of telling her this is she had been to mention anything else about what he was once doing to her, ‘she will be the one to get in bother,'” the lawsuit alleges.

Snapping point

Roberts mentioned she in the end had sufficient after Brienza raped her within the ladies’s locker room after a Yankees recreation in September 2021. After that incident, Roberts “felt like she may just not undergo what was once going down to her” and “feared that if she didn’t achieve out to any person for assist, her existence may well be at the line.” So she reported the alleged sexual misconduct to an inspector within the Inner Affairs Bureau.

Whilst Roberts had firstly was hoping to stick with the dept, and at the stadium unit, till no less than 2023, which might have marked 25 years with the NYPD, she “felt that she had no selection rather than to retire from the NYPD” early, on November 30.

Roberts’ attorney writes within the lawsuit that ahead of running at the Stadium element, hanging on her NYPD uniform was once the “easiest second” of Roberts’ day, as a result of she “was once proud that as an officer she was once in a position to assist numerous other folks.”

“That position, the ones emotions, and the affection of her task had been all taken clear of her because of what the Captain did,” the lawsuit says.

Roberts asks for $35 million in compensatory damages within the lawsuit.

Roberts’ lawyer instructed Insider on Thursday that he has two objectives with the lawsuit: assist in making his shopper smartly once more and ensure Brienza is rarely “in a position to try this anymore.” He additionally hopes it’ll create exchange inside the NYPD.

“The NYPD has were given to get into the 20 th century. It is nonetheless a sexist group, a racist group. It is not a twist of fate that that is an African-American that this took place to, by the hands of a white manager,” Lichtmacher mentioned. “Who may just really feel much less robust than a Black girl being raped by means of her white manager within the NYPD?”

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