A former NYPD domestic violence officer claims she spent five years in ‘hell’ where she was repeatedly raped and sexually abused by her patrol partner and another cop while her superiors ignored her cry for help.
Maria Mendez, a 14-year veteran on the force last assigned to the 32nd Precinct Ney York Police Department in Harlem, declares in her federal complaint that in five years, she was repeatedly subjected to sexual violence, mental abuse, harassment, and threats, leading her to attempt suicide and leaving her with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.point 427 | 1
After Mendez resigned from the NYPD in 2019 and brought her accusations to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the agency apparently declined to prosecute the case, citing insufficient evidence.
Mendez then filed her bombshell federal lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against more than a dozen defendants. She is claiming gender discrimination, hostile work environment, negligent hiring, training and supervision, and failures to intervene and discipline.
The former officer also claims that FDNY firefighter Evan Santana raped her and forced her to buy opioids and other drugs he stole from the homes of dead people.
Mendez told The News that if she protested, the officers would beat and rape her. She said that her only way out was to quit the department, which she did.
“My whole family got ruined,” Mendez said, breaking down in tears. “I couldn’t take it anymore. They damaged my ear. My face was all damaged. My kids were suffering too much.”
Mendez claimed that the “incalculable” number of rapes she endured was so bad, she suffered “physical deformities to her vagina and anus requiring surgical repair” and she was left suicidal and suffering from anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, the lawsuit claims.
Lt Julio Calle allegedly asked Mendez to “spoon-feed him in his bed because she’s Dominican” and asked to suck her toes, while Sgt Alfred Gallicchio is accused of taking pictures of a colleague while she pumped breast milk and then daring a subordinate to steal the milk and drink it, which he did.
Gallicchio, a union delegate, is also accused of asking Mendez to perform threesomes and making disgusting comments like “let me drink the p—y juice” and “I’ll lick your p—y all day” and other remarks about having sex with her.
In the 50-page document, Mendez said Officer Ryan Marrero, her patrol partner of several years and another cop in the 32nd Precinct frequently raped her, forced her to perform sexual favors, and sodomize her on a regular basis. She also names a former FDNY medic turned firefighter, who she alleges sold her prescription pain killers that he had taken from overdose victims.
Mendez claims Marrero would repeatedly rape her, “brutally punched,” “kicked” and “strangled” Mendez and forced his “fist” inside her anus and vagina.
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The complaint states that between 2014 and 2019, the two officers “plied her with alcohol, stolen opioids, and MDMA, aka Molly, which they sold to her, then under physical and psychological threat, forced her to perform deviant sexual acts including anal, oral and vaginal sex inside department facilities, vehicles, and other locations”.point 293 | 1
Mendez said her fellow cops threatened to out her as an addict if she reported them to her superiors. When she finally did seek help, her superiors, some of whom were women, shrugged off her claims, accusing her of being a slut, she said.
A group chat between members of the department shared videos of Mendez getting raped and assaulted and high-ranking officers viewed them but no one tried to help her.
Finally, on January 18, Mendez started taking back her life.
After meeting at a Queens hotel, her former partner beat her and choked her until she was unconscious, Mendez said. When he left the hotel room, she broke down crying and called her husband. She resigned from the department the next day.
In July 2019, Mendez was interviewed by the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau and members of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Sex Crimes Unit and provided reams of evidence to back up her claims.
The evidence included mobile devices, 20 activity logs, and more than 100 pairs of “soiled” underwear and a DNA sample — but a year later, she was informed the Manhattan DA wouldn’t be prosecuted because the office couldn’t “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime has occurred.”
To this date, Mendez doesn’t know about the status of the IAB probe. Her attorney, Eric Sanders, plans to file a $90 million lawsuit against the city in the coming months.
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