"Of the names Port Authority police instructors called former recruit
Amanda Holley, 'cop' was not included.
The civil servants named in a federal complaint filed last week called
Holley a Barbie and an American Girl doll because she was "too
feminine" to be a police officer, the 29-year-old Jackson woman
claims.
The sexual harassment did not go unnoticed by other recruits, who saw
Sgt. Erick Torres and other officers demean Holley in front of her
peers, comment on her breasts and attack her with pepper spray during
training at the Jersey City academy, the lawsuit obtained by the Daily
News asserts.
The suit demands unspecified damages and compensation for lost wages
and injury to reputation after four months of alleged harassment in
which she says she was silenced by abusive instructors out of risk of
being terminated.
Holley, whose relatives work in law enforcement as well, was supposed
to graduate from the academy in January 2014, but she was fired for
refusing to resign after failing a firearms test.
"I get that they're supposed to try and break you down and eventually
build you up at some point," Holley told WNYW-TV. "They broke me down
and kept breaking me down."
Her looks allegedly drove most of the harassment.
According to the suit, Torres pointed out that Holley had a large
chest and said, "Don't forget your sports bra" because "you're the
only one with a chest."
The blond recruit with a master's degree in social work used to
rehabilitate inmates for a living, but Torres said she "did not have
the gumption to do law enforcement work and should have stuck with
social works solely because she was a young female," the lawsuit
contends.
The suit details several instances of harassment, including an
exercise in which Officer Josh Oliveri said, "Everyone will live
except Holley."
He and four other officers including Torres purportedly used pepper
spray on Holley to the point she hid under a fire truck after the
exercise was done to protect her face.
Torres thenallegedly "paraded" Holley in front of the platoon, called
her Angelina Jolie for having such a swollen face and asked if she had
a Botox injection.
A month before she lost her job, Torres told Holley he would make her
face "pretty" if she died in the line of duty, the lawsuit claims.
"I do a lot of funerals for fallen cops and I normally never look at
their face, but for you I'll make sure you look pretty for your
family," Torres allegedly said.
Port Authority officials and Torres were not available for comment
when NJ.com attempted to contact them."
(Nydaily News)
Hmm this is serious.
