NJ Officer Wins Essex Harassment Suit

November 15, 2004

A former Essex County sheriff's officer who claimed she was harassed on the job because she is a lesbian — and got little relief from her superiors when she complained — was awarded $2.8 million by a Union County jury yesterday.

The jury found in favor of Karen Caggiano, 43, of Bridgewater, after a three-week trial in which her attorneys accused sheriff's officers of acts of lewdness in the late 1990s.

One of the officers, Ron Tutela, who is still a sheriff's officer, was accused of repeatedly exposing himself in front of Caggiano.

Caggiano, who filed suit in 1999, testified that she was forced to use the same locker room and bathroom as male officers and that the lockers were decorated with pictures of naked women.

Neil Mullin, Caggiano's attorney, said the award included about $1 million in punitive damages. To assess punitive damages, he said, the jury had to find that Caggiano's superiors acted maliciously and with intent to harm her.

Mullin criticized Sheriff Armando Fontoura for what the lawyer said was a whitewashed internal affairs report that found no merit to Caggiano's charges and recommended no action against the officers harassing her.

It was a filthy zoo, Mullin said of conditions in the sheriff's department. It was a climate polluted by horrible anti-gay comments directed at gay prisoners.

Mullin said that after Caggiano's complaint was found to be without merit, she was forced to attend a sexual harassment training seminar in a group that included one of the officers accused of harassing her, Frank Guardabascio.

The lawyer said Fontoura stopped by the seminar and, with Caggiano the only woman in the room, made a joke about the female posterior.

He sees her sitting there in a room full of men and says, 'Remember guys, harass is one word,' and the place breaks out laughing, Mullin said.

When he took the stand as a defense witness last week, Fontoura admitted making the statement, but denied it was said in jest.

In retrospect, if I thought that would offend Karen, I would have chosen a different word, the sheriff testified. It was not a joke, not intended as a joke and everyone in that room understood it was not a joke.

Fontoura could not be reached for comment on the trial, which was moved to Superior Court in Union County from Essex to avoid conflicts of interest.

Rosemary Alito, the attorney for Essex County, said her position remains that the response to Caggiano's complaint was proper and thorough. She said Caggiano admitted in court that she experienced no further harassment after she made her complaint. And the jury, Alito said, rejected her claim that she was retaliated against and ostracized by her co-workers.

Caggiano, hired as a sheriff's officer in 1993, testified that her superior, Capt. Robert LeFrancis, now retired, routinely used derogatory comments when referring to gay inmates.

Guardabascio also made derogatory jokes about her, she said.

Tutela, she said, not only exposed himself but also talked about various sex acts in front of her.

Tutela had been suspended for three days in 1993 for spitting on a juvenile inmate and directing a racial slur at him. Fontoura admitted on the stand that he personally signed an order allowing him to use vacation days for the suspension.

He also acknowledged that he had once worked closely with Tutela's father in the Newark Police Department.

Caggiano's former partner, Timothy Pentimone, gave a statement corroborating much of her account.

Mullin said the prosecutor's office is required by law to review the case since there were punitive damages. He said he would like a state grand jury to review whether there was criminal wrongdoing in the handling of the internal affairs investigation.

Mullin also accused the county counsel's office of acting irresponsibly, since the case could have been settled for $300,000 in 1999. Besides the damages, he said, the county would have to pay Caggiano more than $1 million in attorneys' fees.

The county counsel's office and the freeholders have truly failed the taxpayers of Essex County by not responsibly evaluating this case, he said.