NMSP officer alleges discrimination as gay woman | Local News | santafenewmexican.com – Santa Fe New Mexican
A New Mexico State Police sergeant has filed a lawsuit accusing the agency of discriminating against her by repeatedly passing her over for promotions and handing her unsafe assignments because she is a woman and because she is gay.
Janice Madrid, who has been on the state police force for 10 years, says in the complaint filed in state District Court she’s been treated unfairly due to her gender and sexual orientation since she graduated from the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy in 2008.
She once encountered a supervisor off-duty and intoxicated at a local casino, she says in the complaint. When she asked if he was OK or needed assistance, she says, he responded: “You’re gay, right, so if I punch you in the face it would be like punching a man, right?”
Most of the problems Madrid cites occurred on the job.
The suit alleges she was sent alone to Mexico in advance of a trip by former Gov. Susana Martinez, even though she didn’t speak Spanish and “was entirely reliant on her male Mexican counterparts,” a situation she said put her safety at risk.
Despite performing well during selection processes for promotions, Madrid alleges, she was denied the better jobs. Instead, they went to less-qualified heterosexual men.
Madrid’s attorney, Thomas Grover, said in a phone interview, “It just defies belief that she’s had this professional interference and hasn’t flown up the chain of command or been in departments where they could really use her.
“She’s a killer investigator, and part of her sadness is that she could have trained a lot of people who could have been successful,” he added, but she hasn’t been able to “for no other reason than that she is gay.”
State police Lt. Mark Soriano, a spokesman for the agency, wrote in an email Thursday, “State Police generally does not comment on pending litigation, and we won’t be commenting on this litigation at this time.”
Madrid’s lawsuit says in 2014 she tested well for a vacant position in the agency’s Narcotics Unit but was told she was ineligible because she needed one year of investigative experience for the post. A heterosexual male officer “without any prior investigatory experience” was given the job, the complaint says, adding, “the Narcotics Unit supervisor told Sgt. Madrid he was told to accept anyone but her.”
In 2019, Madrid participated in a sergeant promotional process and attained the top score, according to her suit. It says she was the first woman in the department’s history to do so. Still, she was not selected for a position she sought in the Investigations Bureau and was instead assigned to the Patrol Division.
Meanwhile, two heterosexual men who were not yet sergeants were given positions as “acting sergeants” in the division.
Madrid raised concerns to her supervisor and to then-Chief Tim Johnson, who is now the interim Cabinet secretary of the Department of Public Safety, her suit says; both denied her grievance claim.
In February 2020, she met with then-Public Safety Secretary Mark Shea and complained the state police agency was not following its own procedures. She told Shea promotional decisions were based on loyalty rather than merit and that she had faced discrimination.
Shea also denied her grievance and provided no explanation, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint says Madrid later applied for a promotion to lieutenant and was denied. When she tried to appeal and asked to see her scores, she was told her appeal — which came the same day as the denial — was untimely and that her scores were “proprietary information.”
Madrid’s claim says she missed out on additional overtime pay and training opportunities due to the lack of promotions.
Her career “has come to a virtual standstill,” the suit says.
She is accusing state police of violating the New Mexico Human Rights Act and is seeking damages including front pay, back pay and legal costs tied to the lawsuit.
Madrid is not the only woman on the state police force to file a complaint alleging she was treated differently than male officers.
The agency’s first female pilot, LeAnne Gomez, filed a discrimination complaint in 2020 saying she resigned after five years because of poor treatment based on her gender.
In public, Gomez said in her complaint, she received positive feedback and was hailed as a role model. The agency even used her image in an advertisement with the caption: “Not all women were created equal. … Some become New Mexico State Police Officers.”
But in the hangar with her fellow officers, she said, she was marginalized and had to fight to get the bare minimum of training offered as a matter of course to male co-workers.
Gomez made claims similar to those of Madrid: She was passed over for missions, denied training opportunities and subjected to sexist comments.
Gomez’s case is scheduled to go to trial in April.