An NYPD officer who claimed her sergeant groped her, kissed her forcibly and told her he masturbated to a photo of her in a Catwoman costume has settled a sexual harassment lawsuit for $535,000.
Ann Cardenas, who is in her thirties, sued Sergeant David John in 2014 after working with him at Brooklyn’s 83rd Precinct, which according to her claims was run like a frat house.
John will pay $20,000 of his own funds. Officer Angel Colon, whom Cardenas accused of continuing the harassment after John’s retirement, will pay $15,000.
The city, which refused to give John and Colon legal defense, will cover the rest.
Cardenas said John called her his ‘work p***y’, simulated ejaculation, kissed her without her consent in the office, grabbed her buttocks and asked her in front of another cop to ‘sit on his face’.
John also told one of Cardenas’ female friends at a Christmas party: ‘You’re ugly but I’ll still f**k you’ in front of Cardenas, according to the suit.
One accusation concerned a photo of Cardenas in a Catwoman costume.
‘John told Ms Cardenas that he had pictures of all the female officers, including her, and that he liked her Halloween costume that she posted on Facebook and that he masturbated to the picture,’ the suit stated.
As for Colon, Cardenas said he harassed her after John’s retirement in 2014. She claimed he grabbed her buttocks and said he would ‘rape her in a good way’.
John filed a lawsuit against Cardenas last year in response to her filing. He claimed she had texted him intimate photos of her, willingly engaged in oral sex with him, and ‘used her obvious attractiveness to manipulate him’.
He withdrew the counter-suit voluntarily in 2015.
Cardenas now works at a new precinct where, according to her attorney Fred Lichtmacher, she is being treated appropriately and professionally.
