Maldonado-Gonzalez v. Puerto Rico Police

927 F. Supp. 2d 1, 2013 WL 811807, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31800
District Court, D. Puerto Rico·Decided March 5, 2013·No. Civil No. 12-1088 (DRD)·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

DANIEL R. DOMÍNGUEZ, District Judge.

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Wanda Maldonado-Gonzalez (“Plaintiff’) brings the instant sex discrimination suit against her former employer, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Police Department (“PRPD”); the PRPD Superintendent, Emilio Diaz-Colon (“Diaz-Colon”); the former PRPD Superintendent, Jose Figueroa-Sancha (“Figueroa-Sancha”); [4] the Director of the Criminal Investigation Division, Ricardo Nazario-Acosta (“Nazario-Acosta”); the Director of the Special Arrests Unit, Hector Millan-Santiago (“Millan-Santiago”); Director of the Special Arrests Unit — Ponce Region, Ivan Vega-De Jesus (“Vega-De Jesus”); and co-worker David Manzur-Ramos (“Manzur-Ramos”); and various John Doe’s and unknown insurance companies (collectively “Defendants”). Plaintiff brings these claims pursuant to the Fifth, Ninth, Tenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988, The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Law No. 100 of June 30, 1959, P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 29, § 146, et seq. (“Law 100”); Law No. 69 of July 6, 1985, P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 29, § 1321 et seq. (“Law 69”); and Article 1802 of the Civil Code of Puerto Rico (“Article 1802”), P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 31 § 5141.

Currently before the Court is Defendants’ motion to dismiss (Docket No. 16) which asserts a variety of defenses to Plaintiffs claims, including failure to state a claim upon which relief can be grated, Eleventh Amendment immunity, and statute of limitations. For the reasons set forth below, Defendants’ motion to dismiss (Docket No. 16) is hereby GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. The surviving claims are Plaintiffs Title VII sex discrimination and retaliation claims against PRPD, as well as the Article 1802 claim against PRPD. The Court DISMISSES the remaining claims.

II. FACTUAL HISTORY1

Plaintiff has worked for PRPD since May 21, 2004. In 2007, she took a position as an investigative agent for the Illegal Firearms Division. In December of 2007, Plaintiff was assigned to be an investigator for the Special Arrests Unit of the Criminal Investigation Division in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Of the ten officers assigned to the unit, Plaintiff was the only female. The Director of the Special Arrests Unit was Millan-Santiago while, the Director of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Ponce region was supervised by Nazario-Acosta. At the time, Figueroa-Sancha was the Police Superintendent.

Plaintiff claims she was discriminated against by Defendants on the first day she began to work for the Special Arrests Unit. Plaintiff was ordered not to drive the patrol car. She was told that no woman assigned to the Special Arrests Unit had ever driven the car because it looked bad to have a woman drive a man around. She also claims to have been forced to give up her assigned arrests to other male officers. Any arrest she did make, was questioned, while arrests made by the male officers were not questioned. Millan-Santiago told Plaintiff that she had to lower the intensity of her work because the other officers may become jealous and may conspire to have her taken out of the unit. At one point, Plaintiff was injured while making an arrest. Millan-Santiago told her that she had specific functions and that it was the duty of the male officers to make such arrests.

After making an honest mistake, Plaintiff was chastised by Millan-Santiago in front of the other officers. Plaintiff believes the purpose of this was to humiliate her because Millan-Santiago called her stupid and stated the Master’s degree she earned was worthless. This became a theme the other officers picked up and repeatedly told Plaintiff her degree was worthless because it was obtained through a computer course. Plaintiff received her [5] Master’s degree from Pontifical Catholic University.

Millan-Santiago told Plaintiff she had no voice in the unit and once ordered her to leave her keys to her locker or else he would break through the lock. After she gave co-worker Carlos Colon a napkin, he responded by telling her she was still a part of the unit because she was useful for some things. She was also told by him that he would exchange Plaintiff for various women that walked by.

A complaint was filed against Plaintiff by Erwin Leon-Torres (“Leon Torres”), supposedly due to her making an arrest that Leon-Torres believed either he or another male officer should have made instead of Plaintiff.

Plaintiff decided to file an administrative complaint with the PRPD against MillanSantiago, Carlos Colon and Leon-Torres on February 23, 2009. PRPD initiated the investigation into her complaint on July 9, 2009, roughly five months after Plaintiff made her initial administrative complaint, while officers were not questioned until September.

Immediately after Plaintiff filed her administrative complaint, her work environment became hostile and her activities at work began to be questioned more often. For example, when she made an arrest, the male officers would complain. Officers began to make frivolous written complaints to Plaintiffs supervisor. Plaintiff was never notified the complaints were registered against her or were put in her personnel file.

At some point, and without Plaintiffs knowledge, Millan-Santiago held a number of meetings with male officers to discuss Plaintiffs performance and situation. Notes of these meetings were attached to Plaintiffs personnel file. Plaintiff claims none of the male officers were treated in this manner and she never participated in any unit meetings regarding any male members’ performance. Eventually, the male officers, including Plaintiffs supervisors, requested Plaintiffs transfer out of the unit. Plaintiff met with Figueroa-Sancha, the Superintendent of Police, to inform him of all these issues, but nothing was done to remedy the situation.

On October 27, 2009, a written recommendation was issued regarding Plaintiffs administrative complaints. The recommendations, written by three individuals employed by PRPD, found that Plaintiff was suffering from sex-based discrimination. It was recommended that MillanSantiago, Carlos Colon, and Leon-Torres all serve a thirty-day suspension due to their involvement. According to Plaintiff, no action has ever been taken pursuant to this recommendation.

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Maldonado-Gonzalez v. Puerto Rico Police, 927 F. Supp. 2d 1, 2013 WL 811807, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31800 (prd 2013).

927 F. Supp. 2d 1 (Maldonado-Gonzalez v. Puerto Rico Police) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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