An NYPD lieutenant with the Internal Affairs Bureau repeatedly hit on a female sergeant who works under him, telling her she has “a nice rack” and demanding a lap dance, according to a new lawsuit.
Sgt. Fizgeralda Sanchez joined the department in 2007 and went to work for IAB Lt. Ronald Reynolds in November 2024 at a unit in the Bronx. He immediately began asking Sanchez, 46, out to “breakfast, lunch and dinner” and quizzing her on her relationship status, according to the suit.
One day when she wore a tighter top to work, he told her she had “a nice rack,” according to court papers.
The harassment was so pervasive she was careful “never to be left alone with him,” according to the lawsuit.
But his alleged behavior continued, escalating at the unit’s Christmas party at Russo’s on the Bay in Queens on Dec. 12, where he told her she was “good looking, hot and beautiful,” according to the lawsuit.
“At the table he’s like, ‘You look so beautiful, you look so hot. Hey, do you want to go to a strip with me?’” Sanchez alleged. “I was like, ‘Absolutely not.’ He came back a couple minutes later and he’s like ‘Come to the strip club and you can give me a lap dance.’”
After the party, Sanchez began wearing different clothing to cover her back and her front, the suit claims.
“I’ve been wearing long sweaters ever since,” she said.
About a week before the Christmas party, he asked her to come to his office. When she arrived, he was watching a TV program that showed two people having sex, according to the suit.
She “ran out of the office.” A week after the Christmas party he winked and asked her if she wanted to come to his office again, she alleged.
“It’s clear to her that he’s asking her to have sex with him in his office,” according to the suit.
But she refused to go back to the office, and that’s when the retaliation began, according to the lawsuit.
Up to that point, Sanchez, who came to the unit after her 24-year-old daughter died, had Sunday and Monday off each week so she could get grief counseling at her church, she said.
But Reynolds told her he was changing her regular days off to Fridays and Saturday, when the counseling was not available. When she objected, he told her she should “transfer to the NYPD Records Room” downtown if she wanted to keep her shift, according to the suit.
In her lawsuit, Sanchez, who has 18 years on the job, asks for an undisclosed amount of money for pain and suffering. She remains on the job at IAB.
“After tragically losing her daughter, our client sought a safer environment in Internal Affairs, only to face relentless sexual harassment and retaliation,” lawyer John Scola said.
“When she rejected her supervisor’s advances, he attempted to transfer her, disrupting the therapy where she grieves — a transfer she was only able to stop by filing this lawsuit.”
She called the NYPD Equal Employment Opportunity unit twice to file a complaint but they never returned her call, she said.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch performed an overhaul at IAB in December, making major changes to the bureau’s leadership.
Reynolds refused to comment on the lawsuit. The Lieutenants Benevolent Association President Lou Turco defended Reynolds and called the allegations “categorically untrue.” The NYPD released a statement saying it “does not tolerate sexual harassment” and is reviewing the lawsuit.