N.J. troopers in State Police diversity unit allege years of homophobic abuse, discrimination in lawsuit – NJ.com
For almost a year now, two veteran troopers have worked in a new unit they helped create that has a mission to make the New Jersey State Police an inclusive and diverse workplace.
It’s been anything but that, they allege in a lengthy lawsuit filed against the agency last week in state court in Monmouth County. The filing of the lawsuit was first reported by app.com.
John Hayes and Jamie Lascik, both lieutenants who joined the State Police in 2001, allege in detail how their careers have been marked by repeated discrimination due to their sexual orientation. They live in Monmouth and Ocean counties, respectively.
Hayes is an openly gay man. Lascik is a gay woman who is Black, and alleges she’s also been the victim of racial animus at times.
The New Jersey State Police and state Attorney General’s Office both declined to comment, referring to policy not to comment on pending litigation.
The officers’ ascension in the ranks has been tough, and marked by repeated homophobic comments, according to the lawsuit. The behavior continued this summer when each held posts in a State Police bureau that’s supposed to handle and improve such conditions, the suit says.
Hayes is the assistant bureau chief of the Employee Health and Wellness Bureau, which has four units, Employee Assistance, Peer Assistance, Medical Services and Diversity & Inclusion. Lascik reports to Hayes as the unit head of Diversity & Inclusion.
For Hayes, the homophobia started on day one, the suit says. When he introduced himself to his squad, his sergeant asked if he was married or had a girlfriend. He said no to both.
“You’re not gay are you?” the sergeant asked, according to the suit. “No not me,” he replied in fear, the suit says.
“This went on for years. Hayes was forced to hide his true self. Even after Governor (Jim) McGreevey came out as gay in 2004, Hayes’ then-Captain allegedly turned to him and said ‘Christ, Hayes, you better not be next,’” the suit says.
Hayes mustered the courage to come out to a State Police lieutenant in 2008, the suit says. “His then-Lieutenant basically equated his homosexuality to being a pedophile,” according to the suit.
He said he was later the subject of an email, sent to current and former troopers, which said: “Can you believe some trooper came out to his unit…What is this division becoming?”
For Lascik, it also started early. She says in the suit she’s the “first openly gay, Black female” to graduate the State Police academy.
After a couple of years on the job, she inquired about working on a tactical patrol unit. A trooper pulled her aside and said the station commander said he’s never put any women in the unit, according to the suit.
“Over the years that followed, Lascik was repeatedly removed from consideration for promotions despite her qualifications and abilities and suffered a pattern of discrimination and harassment as a result of her being a Black homosexual female,” the suit says.
By the time both Hayes and Lascik ascended to their current positions, they’d continued to suffer repeated harassment, the suit says.
In 2018, Hayes was asked to be the State Police’s LGBTQ liaison, a result of “considerable political urging” by Garden State Equality, according to the suit. He was the only openly gay male trooper at the time, the suit says.
When he met his new workmates, a State Police major allegedly said: “Just don’t go around wearing assless chaps and your hat.”
The next year, Hayes received approval to have a State Police patrol vehicle in the gay pride parade in Asbury Park – a first. Someone took a picture of one of the troopers holding hands with his husband and it ended up on the Facebook page of “The Outfit,” a group of active troopers, according to the lawsuit.
A slew of discriminatory comments about how “disgusting” it was to see a gay trooper holding hands with his husband followed, the suit says.
In April of this year, during work discussions on a position in the Diversity & Inclusion Unit, which launched in January, Hayes and Lascik’s supervisor allegedly made comments that she favored a Black man in the role, in case a George Floyd-type incident occurred, the suit alleges. Hayes and another trooper favored an openly gay white woman trooper they knew, the suit said.
“I’m not creating no Lady Blue & Gold Unit and I’m not creating no LGBT Unit,” the supervisor allegedly said. The Lady Blue & Gold is a group of women troopers who meet socially and play in sports tournaments, the suit says, and are derogatorily known in the State Police as, “a bunch of lesbians.”
By rank, the supervisor was the State Police’s chief diversity officer at the time. “To hear such discriminatory comments from someone whose central job function is ensuring equality is disheartening, offensive, and particularly unwelcome conduct,” the suit says.
Hayes and Lascik both later filed internal, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaints against the supervisor. They have been retaliated for filing those too, according to the lawsuit.
The supervisor is one several named defendants in the suit, which alleges five violations of the state’s Law Against Discrimination, and says Hayes and Lascik have suffered mentally and physically due to the years of abuse.
“The ongoing harassment and disparate treatment constitute a continuing violation and were substantially more than discrete acts, but rather consisted of a pattern of retaliatory animus, and significant and recurrent intimidation and differential treatment by [Hayes and Lascik’s] supervisors over the course of many years through and including 2021,” the lawsuit concludes.
“All of these events corresponded with other unwelcome conduct, including many members of the police force repeatedly saying negative comments about the LGBTQ community … and this repeated hostility did alter the conditions of the [Hayes and Lascik’s] employment.”
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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com.