A New Jersey police sergeant repeatedly exposed himself to two female cops inside the departmental gym earlier this year — then the internal affairs bureau botched its investigation into the incident by letting details leak to other officers, a new lawsuit claims.
The unidentified women — each of whom have more than a decade on the job — said in the state Superior Court lawsuit that Sgt. Noel Santiago of the Trenton Police Department began to completely undress in front of them earlier this year, according to the Star-Ledger.
He repeated the bizarre practice over and over, the lawsuit claimed, pushing the officers to go to internal affairs and give statements about his alleged lewd behavior.
But somehow word of their issue leaked, and another detective started mocking them by spreading a clip of an old “Seinfeld” episode in which one of Elaine’s dates exposes himself to her, the lawsuit said.
The department suspended the detective, but it was too late — the Trenton PD had already “breached plaintiffs’ privacy by allowing a confidential complaint of sexual harassment to be openly circulated, mocked, and invalidated” by other cops, the Ledger said.
“The notion that such behavior could exist … in any workplace, let alone within the Trenton Police Department, is truly concerning,” their attorney, Matthew Luber, told the newspaper.
“We are very proud of our clients for their courage in bringing the alleged conduct to light,” he continued, before calling the Trenton department a “toxic, male-dominated environment” that subjected his clients to “egregious discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.”
Both cops filed criminal complaints against Santiago over his actions, the Ledger added. Those cases are reportedly still pending.
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office — which oversees all the local departments in its jurisdiction — began investigating the sergeant in May, according to the legal claims.
He was suspended, but returned to work in early June without having suffered any consequences, the lawsuit said.
One of the female officers even left the department over his conduct, saying that dealing with the sergeant’s behavior and the department’s weak response was “intolerable,” the attorney added.
Santiago also allegedly made comments about one of the officers who needed to pump her breast milk after coming back from maternity leave, saying “the other guys felt uncomfortable” about her pumping in the building.
He also made crude remarks to the officer, casually mentioning that she should start a “naked wellness business,” the suit said.
Both he and the department have reportedly been accused of breaking the state’s law against discrimination.
The Trenton police did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
