Two Southampton Town Police officers have filed separate lawsuits this fall alleging discrimination against them by department superiors over long periods of time.
Both lawsuits claim that the officers, Nelson Gonzalez and John Giambone, have seen their career advancement constrained by discrimination against them by their superiors, been issued unwarranted internal punishments, been subject to verbal insults and, in the case of Giambone, a physical one.
Both are seeking financial compensation for lost pay due to wrongly denied promotions and damages for emotional suffering and punitive damages against the town.
Gonzalez, who has been a town officer since 2003 and was the department’s first native Spanish speaking officer, claims that another officer repeatedly used ethnic slurs directed toward him and about him behind his back when they worked together more than 15 years ago, and that the officer, who is now a superior, has played a role in keeping him from earning promotions.
The suit claims that the officer, Lieutenant Todd Spencer, called Gonzalez, who is from Argentina, a “dirty Mexican” and a “spic” on multiple occasions dating back as far as 2005, when they were both working in the department’s Street Crimes Unit, which specialized in pursuing drug dealers.
When Spencer was made a shift supervisor in 2015, Gonzalez claims he was wrongly charged with insubordination and docked two days’ pay and then accused of sleeping in his car while on patrol, which Gonzalez claims he was not doing.
He claims that on at least two occasions he was barred from attending special training programs that would have qualified him for advanced roles and higher salaries or benefits by the department’s chief, James Kiernan, and other brass.
Kiernan said this week that he could not comment on the matter, citing a standard town policy barring comments regarding pending litigation.
Giambone, who is 60 and lives in Greenport, has been on the town force since 1995, full time since 2002. He claims that he has been passed over for promotions and preferred assignments more than 20 times without due cause and subject to ridicule and insults from superior officers in the department.
“It had always been my hope and dream to work in investigations and become a detective, but I am continually denied any advancement,” he writes in his complaint. “Sadly, I continue to be passed over in favor of much younger, inexperienced officers, some in their twenties and thirties with less than five years of on-the-job experience.”
In the narrative of his complaint, filed in federal court in August, he claims that a 2004 incident in which he crashed his patrol car at high speed while responding to an emergency, leaving him severely injured, and led to a six-month suspension has “set the tone” for how he has been treated in the ensuing 20 years.
He also claims that he’s been more recently denied promotions because of social media posts he made under “an assumed name” in which he “commented on religious and social issues as part of my ministry studies.” The posts were made outside of work, he says, and that his religious beliefs are protected under civil rights law and cannot be grounds for professional decisions.
Giambone says that in 2006 he was assaulted with an electronic stun gun placed in the small of his back by a superior officer during a classroom training exercise. The incident caused “pain, mental anguish and embarrassment in front of the entire class,” he said. He filed an internal complaint with the department’s brass at the time, but says that nothing was ever done to hold accountable the officer who had zapped him.
The lawsuit asks for “immediate economic, emotional, liquidated and punitive damage relief as a deterrent against future discriminatory practices,” the claim reads. He also asks that a temporary assignment be made permanent and that he be compensated for lost wages. The lawsuit says he was due to retire this year.
Michael Wright on Nov 6, 2024