Female former NYPD cadet was ‘encouraged to have sex with instructors to pass the training and was physically bullied and terminated after she refused'
Daily Mail
May 2, 2019
A former New York Police Department recruit has claimed that she was sexually harassed by her instructors during training.
In a 2017 lawsuit, Glenda Mejia, 37, alleged that while she was at the police academy she was encouraged to have sex with her instructors and when she refused, they punished her with grueling physical workouts.
Mejia claims that the workouts were so bad that she developed shin splints, fractures in her leg and a back injury.
According to the New York Daily News, Mejia was subsequently dropped from the academy without anyone stating a cause.
'They wiped away my dreams and my career,' she told the newspaper.
'I feel like I'm in purgatory right now and I can't get out. I stood up for myself and I got terminated for no reason. Every time I talk about it I get emotional.'
Mejia's lawsuit came to light after her lawyer reached out to the Daily News last week following a story the newspaper broke about Sgt Michael Anderson's transfer.
Anderson, an NYPD Academy instructor was transferred from the NYPD academy in College Point, Queens, to a transit command in the area for having an extramarital affair with a police cadet.
According to a statement from the NYPD, the 'incident is under internal review'. Anderson was not named in Mejia's lawsuit.
Anderson, 51, remains on full duty but could face departmental disciplinary charges for his behavior.
The officer has been with the force for more than three decades and has been training officers for just over twenty years.
But his relationship with the 26-year-old was seen as an immature move by others in the force, who shared that the officer constantly gave the cadet favorable treatment.
'He has to know better,' one source explained to the Daily News. 'He's been around forever and she's a rookie.'
In Mejia's lawsuit, she claimed that fraternization is common in the academy and often leads to easier training and better assignments after graduation.
Mejia said in a deposition obtained by the Daily News that 'if you don't flirt or you are not friendly the way they want you to be friendly' then the instructors 'start bullying you'.
'I did see things at the academy with the gym instructors trying to date female recruits … If you talk… they make your life a living hell.'
Mejia also alleged in the lawsuit that Officer Michael Opromalla told her that he knew she was 'struggling' and said 'maybe we can have private sessions outside of the academy, and I could train you and you will get better'.
Her lawyer, Kelly O'Connell, told the newspaper that Mejia was 'basically terminated from the program, and her dreams to be a detective were crushed because she didn't play the game'.
'You had better date, have sex, whatever it is, if you want to graduate and if you want to get into a good precinct. If you don't do that, you are going to get bullied.'
An NYPD spokesman said that 'there is no tolerance for sexual harassment in the NYPD'.
The department is currently reviewing the lawsuit.
Mejia was 34 when she started at the academy in January 2014. She was terminated in February 2015.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m inclined to believe Mejia. Training instructors have a lot of power over trainees and can make life miserable for someone they don’t like. A good-looking woman is a likely target for an instructor who wants a piece of ass. Women have the same problem during basic training in the military.
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