A former Cape May County police officer has filed suit in New Jersey Superior Court against the city of Cape May and several police department employees, alleging wrongful termination because of his sexual orientation.
Steven Pascal alleges in his complaint that Capt. Robert Sheehan created false disciplinary charges on multiple occasions in an attempt to remove Pascal from the force. Pascal is suing to get his job back and for monetary damages.
Pascal also alleges fellow officers made antigay slurs and homophobic jokes about him, and that such behavior was known to and tolerated by police department commanding officers, including Sheehan.
“Steve worked with 20 or so officers in the police department and he was the only one who was openly gay,” Sebastian Ionno, Pascal’s attorney, told PGN. “It was commonplace for gay jokes and gay slurs to be made against him. Worse, it was known and tolerated by police leadership.”
Sheehan was recently demoted from chief to captain in an unrelated pending investigation.
Pascal says he was also subject to repeated antigay slurs and even death threats from members of the public. Yet, when he sought relief from commanding officers, he says, they refused to take remedial action.
“Once an employer is made aware by employees of complaints like these, they have a legal obligation to take action to remediate them,” Ionno said. “Instead, they saw Mr. Pascal as a problem because he made the complaints, and wanted to get rid of him.”
According to the suit, a member of the public, a male minor, called several of Pascal’s friends pretending to be Pascal, and told them he wanted to have sexual intercourse with them.
Pascal later encountered the minor in public and asked him why he had made the calls. The minor’s parents said Pascal harassed their son, and Pascal was suspended for two days and required to attend therapy for one month while no action was taken against the minor.
When Pascal approached former Chief of Police Diane Sorentino about the disciplinary charges, the complaint states she told him, “What do you want me to do, announce to the city that you are gay and to leave you alone?”
In the complaint, Pascal contends that, in 2009, other members of the public repeatedly made homophobic slurs and threatened to “snap his neck in a dark alley.” When Pascal approached Sheehan about the incident, Sheehan opened an Internal Affairs investigation because he and Sorentino had previously told Pascal “not to engage in confrontational behavior by addressing ‘gossip’ about his sexual orientation,” the suit alleges.
The investigation required Pascal to be evaluated by a city doctor, Dr. Gary Glass, who found Pascal unfit for duty, despite two independent doctors’ evaluations that stated he was fit for duty, the suit states.
Consequently, in early 2010, Pascal was suspended without pay for an extended period.
An agreement was reached that summer to allow him to return to work, be declared fit for duty and have all charges dropped, provided Pascal waive any claims against the city up until that point, including for back pay.
Pascal retuned to work but was assigned by Sheehan to a squad whose commanding officer, Sgt. Connelly, expressed to Sheehan that he did not want to work with Pascal because he was gay, according to the complaint.
For the next two years, Pascal says, he was subject to a hostile work environment, including failure by Connelly to provide him backup or assistance with calls.
Connelly made a formal request to Sheehan to transfer Pascal to another department but Sheehan refused, the complaint states.
Sheehan opened another I.A. investigation against Pascal in September 2012, this time allegedly because of Pascal’s mishandling of a routine vehicle stop.
However, the complaint says, no formal complaint was ever made against Pascal by the citizen involved in the vehicle stop.
Pascal was charged with 14 separate disciplinary charges related to the incident.
“This is another instance when Sheehan abused the I.A. process,” Ionno said. “No complaint was ever filed. It was as if they were searching for a way to get rid of Mr. Pascal.”
Pascal had to again undergo evaluation by a doctor designated by Sheehan, and was found unfit for duty.
A department hearing was held from late 2012 through early 2013, during which, Ionno said, the hearing officer was presented with uninvestigated evidence that violated a 45-day statute of limitations. The officer recommended Pascal’s termination.
“The hearing officer was a retired judge who was picked and paid by the city,” said Ionno.
After 17 years on the force, Pascal was terminated in August 2013. He filed suit that September.
“The case has been moving very slowly,” said Ionno. “Capt. Sheehan is now under investigation for unrelated charges, which has pushed back our depositions even further.”
Pascal now lives in Philadelphia and works as a flight attendant.
