Bergen County Sheriff’s office settles lawsuit alleging retaliation after sexual harassment reported

The Bergen County Sheriff’s Office paid nearly half a million dollars late last year to settle a now-retired cop’s claim that the department retaliated and discriminated against her after she reported a superior for sexual harassment.

The settlement ended the lengthy case of Emily Lyons, a former sheriff’s officer who first took the agency to court in 2019 because the agency brass allegedly denied her many transfer requests to specialized units that would have helped her career along, including assignments with the sheriff’s K-9 unit and the county prosecutor’s office.

The sheriff’s office and the county agreed to pay Lyons the hefty sum of $450,000 to end the litigation.

Of that, Lyons took home $250,000, while the other $200,000 went to her lawyers, according to the settlement.

“Emily waited a long time,” Lyons’ attorney, Charles Sciarra, said in a Tuesday email. “She testified, faced down cross-examination and the county immediately settled. She has moved on and looks forward to the next phase of her life.”

In her lawsuit, Lyons said she believed her superiors’ refusal to let her move into other units stemmed from a report she made four years earlier about a department captain who sexually harassed her — a claim the sheriff’s office investigated and later suspended the captain over.

Superior Court Judge John O’Dwyer didn’t find much merit in most of Lyons’ complaint at a February 2023 hearing. But he ruled her claims about a hostile work environment could move forward, according to the court transcript.

That particular set of allegations included claims the department never paid Lyons a detective’s stipend to which she was entitled; stuck her at a desk by the men’s bathroom to “demean and isolate her”; and that one of her superiors said she might lose her detective bureau spot if she went on light duty because of a pregnancy, the transcript said.

“[Her supervisor] makes this comment that basically says, ‘Well, if you do ask for modified duty, I don’t know if we’re going to be able to keep you here in the detective bureau,’” Matthew Curran, another of Lyons’ attorneys, said during the hearing. “A jury can reasonably infer that there was a threat that if she took modified duty, she’s out.”

In the end, that was all Lyons needed to take home a payout.

Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton provided The Jersey Vindicator with a copy of the transcript and settlement, but said the agreement “prohibits us from discussing the matter unless she discloses information regarding the case first.”

The lawsuit is one of a few holdover pieces of litigation that sprang from the reign of former Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino, who resigned in 2018 after a recording leaked of him making racist and homophobic comments.

The suit didn’t name Saudino, only the sheriff’s office and Bergen County itself, according to The Record.

But it did refer to incidents that allegedly happened during Saudino’s tenure, which was marked by a deluge of lawsuits accusing him of retaliating against officers he didn’t like.

At the time, Cureton — then a newly elected sheriff — said Lyons’ allegations weren’t true.

“I can assure you assignments and opportunities are made available to the employees of my office solely based on operational needs, merit and fitness,” Cureton said in 2019.

“Furthermore, any allegation that Officer Lyons was denied any opportunity based on her gender or allegations against another officer is simply false.”