A central claim in NYPD officer Maria Delacruz’s lawsuit is that Deputy Chief Steven Mauriello urged her to limit what she told investigators about a workplace confrontation and offered to help arrange a transfer if she did. Filed Oct. 21 in Manhattan Supreme Court, the suit names Mauriello, Capt. Amanjeet Sandhu, the police commissioner and others as defendants and seeks unspecified damages. The New York Post reported the filing and allegations.
The complaint says the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau interviewed Delacruz after another officer confronted her in a locker room over rumors that she was having a relationship with Sandhu. Delacruz alleges Mauriello told her to discuss only that incident and promised to help her transfer to a location of her choice if she did. She did not report the alleged harassment to IAB at that time, according to the suit. Delacruz later told the Post that fear of retaliation and feeling she had no one to approach contributed to her silence.
Reporting duties and retaliation protections
The NYPD’s August 2021 EEO handbook says uniformed and civilian supervisors and managers, as well as EEO liaisons, are mandated reporters of violations of the department’s EEO policy, according to the NYPD Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Handbook. The New York City Commission on Human Rights says the NYC Human Rights Law prohibits retaliation against people who speak out against workplace sexual harassment. It identifies transfer to a less desirable location as one possible form of retaliation, according to the commission.
The allegations named in the suit
The lawsuit places the alleged pressure to narrow her account against a broader set of claims about Sandhu’s conduct. Delacruz, 33, was assigned to Transit District 1 on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in 2023, the year Sandhu became its commander. The suit alleges that beginning in March he regularly assigned her to drive him and made repeated comments about her appearance and body. It also says he told her he wanted to be her lover rather than her supervisor, suggested she remove her bulletproof vest while looking at her chest, tried to kiss her during a drive and said he would leave his wife to be with her.
At a Christmas party at the Glen Island Harbour Club in New Rochelle, Sandhu allegedly grabbed Delacruz’s arm and urged her to leave with him and sleep with him. She refused, the lawsuit says. Delacruz says she objected to his conduct but often spent work tours in his office or riding with him in his departmental vehicle.
Contact allegedly continued after a transfer
The complaint alleges that contact continued after Delacruz transferred out of Transit District 1. It says Sandhu sent her a disappearing WhatsApp message containing a pornographic video in September 2024, asked how many dildos she owned and suggested buying one, questioned her about her sexual activity and masturbation, and later sent an image of a woman wearing a thong.
Delacruz remains an NYPD officer and has since been transferred to the Manhattan North Patrol Borough in Harlem. She told the Post she hopes speaking publicly will encourage other female officers to report alleged abuse. An NYPD spokesman said the department had not been served with the lawsuit and would respond once it receives it.
Other reporting on allegations involving NYPD supervisors
In a separate case, NYPD Inspector Jeremy Scheublin was charged in July with attempted rape in the first degree after a female officer accused him of assaulting her in his precinct office. Prosecutors alleged that he grabbed her, dropped her on a couch, got on top of her and tried to remove her belt; Scheublin pleaded not guilty, The New York Times reported.
Separately, an NBC News review found that 27 of 87 NYPD officers accused in court papers of abusing female officers had since moved up in rank. That review has drawn attention to the department’s handling of allegations against supervisors.
