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NYPD Officer Claims Boss Sexually Harassed Her & Called Her His "Work P---y"


By

Ben Yakas

Published Mar 16, 2014

Modified Mar 16, 2014


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Officer Ann Cardenas

 

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By

Ben Yakas

Published Mar 16, 2014

Modified Mar 16, 2014


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An NYPD officer is suing her boss, who she claims subjected her to regular sexual harassment in front of other officers, including groping her, showing her photos of his penis, and referring to her as his "work pussy." "This is the worst example of sexual harassment that I have seen in all my years practicing law," lawyer Linda Cronin told the Daily News about the suit. "There was a frathouse culture in the precinct that was beyond the pale."

Officer Ann Cardenas, 29, claims that Sgt. David John, 41, harassed her for more than a year while they both worked at the 83rd Precinct in Bushwick. “In the summer of 2013 while I was in the precinct sitting on the couch in the conditions unit room, Sgt. John grabbed me, threw me down and held me down while trying to kiss me,” Cardenas, who has been on the force for six years, said in the complaint. “He then climbed on top of me and would not let me up."

"He also showed me pictures of his penis and asked, ‘Is this big? It’s bigger than your boyfriend’s.’ This was done in front of the other officers," Cardenas said in the complaint. "Sgt. John often pulls his pants down in front of me. He often sleeps in the office with his belt undone, and then will pull his pants down, grab his groin and say, ‘Ann, hold this for me,’ and will do this in front of other officers."

John, who is a 20 year NYPD veteran, has filed for retirement, but that is on hold while the Brooklyn district attorney’s office and the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau investigate Cardenas' claims. He claimed, through his lawyer, that he is "in possession of compelling evidence confirming that Officer Cardenas is not being entirely truthful."

This is far from the first cop-on-cop allegation of sexual harassment in the past few years: the widow of an NYPD officer who died last year sued the department claiming the Queens cop committed suicide because his commanding officer forced him to have sex with her for a favorable work schedule. A lesbian officer sued over incessant sexual harassment, two female NYPD officers accused their supervisor of sexual harassment, and a male officer sued his Transit Bureau boss over unwanted sexual advances. And a female officer sued her commanding officer for sexually harassing her by utilizing the raw sexual energy of the Twilight saga.

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Ann Cardenas

cops

david john

nypd

police

sexual harassment


Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


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