News

Bergen prosecutor’s detective alleges pattern of retaliation for complaints over racial slurs

Published January 29, 2011

An Asian-American detective with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office has filed a lawsuit against her employer, alleging she was subjected to retaliation when she complained about a superior’s use of racial slurs.

 

 

Lucia Kui said in her lawsuit that, beginning in 1998, a now-retired senior investigator persisted in using racial slurs in her presence even though she had told him many times that his remarks offended her.

 

 

The suit alleges that Kui was transferred in 2000 to a different squad, where she was paid $10,000 less than colleagues with similar work experience.

 

Kui said she was later ordered to see a psychiatrist as retaliation after she wrote a memo reporting the harassment. She said she experienced further retaliation and was falsely accused of trying to burn down a squad room and assaulting someone at her gym.

 

She alleged that she and another colleague of Asian descent were the only prosecutor’s office detectives who were not given access cards to the courthouse building in Hackensack.

 

The retaliation continued for years until last year, she said, as she was transferred to different units, was accused of violating a dress code and even was denied an office cubicle.

 

When she complained about the harassment to a state official, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli called her into his office and threatened to charge and suspend her, she alleged.

 

Kui declined to comment on Thursday, referring questions to her attorney, William Courtney.

 

“All my client wants is to be treated like everybody else,” Courtney said.

 

He said Kui went through the proper channels within the prosecutor’s office to have the harassment addressed.

 

“And nothing was done,” he said. “She is still being isolated and retaliated against.”

 

Molinelli declined to comment, saying the incidents that form the basis of Kui’s lawsuit are alleged to have occurred before he became prosecutor in 2002.

 

“Further, county policy is that no member of this office may discuss matters in litigation,” he said.

 

John Shahdanian, an attorney representing Bergen County and the prosecutor’s office, was out of the office Thursday and did not return a phone call.

 

The lawsuit, which was filed in Passaic County and later transferred to Bergen, has been referred to mediation in Superior Court in Hackensack, according to court records.

 

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Thursday, January 27, 2011
BY KIBRET MARKOS
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER