A gay police
officer has filed a discrimination suit against the city and
the New York Police Department, saying he was threatened
with violence, called vulgar names, and treated
unfairly by supervisors because of his sexuality.
The lawsuit was
filed by Michael Harrington, 30, who claims his superior
officers failed to take proper action when he told them
about the malicious and discriminatory mistreatment he
suffered.
''The hell he's
gone through is heart-wrenching,'' said Harrington's
lawyer, George D. Rosenbaum.
Connie Pankratz,
spokeswoman for the city's Law Department, said city
officials had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.
Harrington says
in court papers that his trouble with coworkers started
in February 2003, when he told another officer at the 75th
Precinct in Brooklyn that he was gay.
Harrington, of
Brooklyn, said in the suit that within months he overheard
an officer in the men's room referring to him as a
''f****t.'' Harrington spoke to the officer who said
he would hurt Harrington if he confronted the officer
again.
Court papers say
Harrington also repeatedly sought a transfer from the
75th Precinct but his written applications ''kept getting
lost.'' He was told that after he finally transferred,
that someone posted obscene drawings of him in a sex
act, the lawsuit alleges.
While working at
the 79th Precinct in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of
Brooklyn, Harrington brought his domestic partner to the
station house Christmas party. Upon introducing his
partner, another officer spit out his drink and began
laughing.
Harrington says
he complained to a supervisor about being mistreated and
the supervisor said he was going to transfer him to the
Sixth Precinct in Greenwich Village ''so plaintiff
could be with his people,'' the suit said.
At the Sixth
Precinct, court papers say, a coworker told Harrington in
December 2006 that ''all f****ts should be shot.''
According to the
suit, the stress, harassment, and a hostile work
environment caused Harrington to develop stomach cramps and
nausea.
The lawsuit,
filed Wednesday at a state court in Manhattan, asks for
unspecified monetary damages. (Samuel Maull, AP)