New York- An NYPD sergeant says he was demoted last year after refusing the repeated sexual advances of a supervisor who brushed her breasts up against him and asked to massage his back with strawberry lotion.
In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, Sgt. John Marchisotto, 34, who works in a unit responsible for monitoring surveillance cameras, said Lt. Carla Hollywood made him “very uncomfortable” for nearly two years.
Marchisotto, 34, said there was sexual tension from the start. The two met in October 2003, when Marchisotto was moved to the Video Interactive Patrol Enhancement Response unit at the Stapleton Houses on Staten Island.
Marchisotto, a 13-year NYPD veteran, claims Hollywood, 40, sat next to him at his desk and asked if he was married, the suit says.
“Yes,” he said.
“Happily?” Hollywood asked.
When Marchisotto said he was in a happy marriage, Hollywood barked back, “Well, no one married is ever happy,” according to the suit.
Marchisotto said the flirting didn’t end there. The suit claims Hollywood then “brushed her chest against [Marchisotto’s] back” while the two were on the job.
Marchisotto said Hollywood inappropriately touched him so he would “feel uncomfortable.”
And the sexual harassment didn’t stop there, he said.
Hollywood would call him at work up to six times a day when she was off duty, the suit says.
“I just wanted to hear your voice on the phone,” she’d allegedly say.
In February 2004, Marchisotto said he sent a letter to the Internal Affairs Bureau outlining the harassment.
He never heard back.
The situation came to a boil last year on Valentine’s Day when Hollywood went to Marchisotto’s office and massaged his neck.
He told her to stop and that her “sexual advances were not welcome.”
The suit says that’s when things got steamy. Hollywood took out a bottle of strawberry lotion and said she “wanted to rub some on his shoulders.”
When Marchisotto said no, Hollywood stormed out of his office.
After that, Hollywood told two sergeants and another housing cop that she wanted to do “everything to ruin [Marchisotto’s] life,” according to the suit.
Marchisotto said Hollywood started a bogus probe to try to get him fired for allegedly threatening her.
The probe culminated when he was demoted on March 3, 2004, without explanation.
Marchisotto, who received several negative evaluations from Hollywood, said he was transferred to a mess hall where cops eat lunch and are given nothing to do.
“I’m sitting in a room looking at the walls,” he said.
Marchisotto said that he even wrote a letter to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly about his ordeal but never got a response.
Marchisotto is suing the city for unspecified damages because the NYPD “failed to take adequate measures to stop it.”
Hollywood, who retired in January, would not comment on the accusations.