Former NYPD officer Maria Mendez [photo], has filed a lawsuit against dept claiming that two fellow officers, including her patrol partner, plied her with illegally obtained prescription drugs between and sexually abused her for years. Superiors did nothing when she filed a complaint, her suit states

An NYPD veteran cop claims she was forced to quit the police force after suffering years of sexual abuse, as well as emotional abuse and physical assaults at the hands of her patrol partner and another officer, for years repeatedly raped her and forced her to perform sexual favors.


Maria Mendez, who worked at Harlem’s 32nd Precinct from 2006 until 2019, claims her superiors did nothing after she reported her fellow officers raped her, beat her, and forced her to perform ‘anal, oral and vaginal sex inside department facilities, vehicles and other locations.’
‘[One woman lieutenant] told me it was all my fault,’ Mendez said.
‘She didn’t care.’
The mother-of-four claims that between 2014 and 2019, the two officers “plied her with alcohol, stolen opioids and MDMA, aka Molly, which they sold to her, then under physical and psychological threat, forced her to perform deviant sexual acts including anal, oral and vaginal sex inside department facilities, vehicles and other locations,” the notice of claim states.
She also names a former FDNY medic turned firefighter, who she alleges sold her prescription pain killers that he had taken from overdose victims.
The NYPD said Mendez never filed official complaints against the officers mentioned in her notice of claim, and the New York Fire Dept said no complaints were filed against the firefighter.
All three are still employed by their respective departments and are on active duty
The names of the men involved are withheld by the media because they have not been criminally charged. No charges have brought against them in the dept either.
Mendez kept the torment bottled for so long because said her fellow cops threatened to out her as an addict if she reported them to her superiors.
When she finally did seek help, her superiors – some of whom were women – shrugged off her claims, accusing her of being a slut, she said.
“[One woman lieutenant] told me it was all my fault,” Mendez said. “She didn’t care.”

14-year NYPD veteran Maria Mendez, [photo], claims her superiors did nothing after she reported her fellow officers raped her, beat her, and forced her to perform sex acts

Mendez and her attorney Eric Sanders are now planning to sue the department for $90 million, saying that the alleged abuse has ruined her life.
‘My whole family got ruined,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t take it anymore. They damaged my ear. My face was all damaged. My kids were suffering too much.’
Listing the suffering she allegedly faced by officers she worked with, her filing notes that on one occasion, the patrol cop became violent with her when she refused to take a nude photo of herself like he had requested.
He wanted to use it to show another woman in hopes of having a threesome.  When she cried about it to a fellow female cop, the cop allegedly encouraged the 14-year veteran to take the racy photo.
‘She was like, ‘Girl, get over it. She then took out a plastic Tropicana bottle and put some Vodka in with the juice and told me to have some,’ Mendez said.

Mendez broke down in tears recalling the sexual and physical abuse she endured at the hands of former colleagues in arms

‘He’s just being fresh,’ the female colleague she had turned to for advice,  told her, she recalled. ‘It’s just a picture.’
She ended up taking a photo of herself in a bra but was punched in the side after she complained that he had just ‘ruined’ her.


Mendez took photos of the bruises she received at the hands of other cops and kept some of the clothes she wore during the attacks, which she claims are stained with DNA from the sex attack.
It all began when Mendez who was  a domestic violence officer for the 32nd Precinct returned from maternity leave with her fourth child, and, she was put on regular patrol.
When she ran out of her prescription painkillers but was still in pain following her Caesarian section, her new partner procured some prescription pills for her, she said
“He was the one who first started giving me the pills,” Mendez said. “He was the one who told me I wouldn’t get addicted. I was not seeing how they were deteriorating my health.”

The favor then devolved to blackmail, as he threatened her that if she refused his sexual advances, he would tell the superiors that she was a drug addict and send the photo she was forced to take for him to her husband.
Her partner allegedly began making inappropriate comments like, “Is it true that women reach their sexual prime after the age of 30?” and talked about arranging a threesome between Mendez and another woman.
One day, her partner allegedly said he needed a picture of her naked to show it to another woman who may be interested in having sex with them, even though Mendez never consented to it.


When she said no, she says her partner became violent: “He grabbed me and pulled me by my vest, telling me, ‘Stop f—– playing, go the f— upstairs and send me the picture,’” Mendez recounted.
“I went up to the female locker room crying.”
That was when she went to the locker room, and confided in another woman officer, only for that officer to  actually encourage her to take the incriminating photo.
Mendez said she ultimately sent the cop a photo of herself in her bra.
“When I gave it to him, I told him, ‘You just ruined me.’ He just punched me in the side and said, ‘Get over it,’” she said.
Using the photo as a blackmail weapon, her partner began demanding sexual favors from her, Mendez said. When she resisted his overtures, he threatened to out her as a drug addict and send the semi-nude photo to her husband, she said.
The alleged rapes and sexual abuse went on for months in the stationhouse, in her personal vehicle, in the precinct parking lot or in the squad car as they parked under the Macombs Dam Bridge or near the West Side Highway, the notice of claim states.

Her breaking point came in January of this year, after her partner beat her unconscious in a hotel she met him at in Queens, which led to her resigning from the NYPD.
After meeting at a Queens hotel, her former partner beat her and choked her until she was unconscious, Mendez said.
Leaving the hotel room, she broke down crying and called her husband.
She resigned from the department the next day, asking a relative who she said is a state trooper to go with her to the 32nd Precinct stationhouse so she could clean out her locker.

Mendez who is currently in recovery said: “I’m relieved, but I’m ashamed I didn’t get out sooner,” she said. “Every day I blame myself,” she said.
The NYPD said on Monday that their Internal Affairs Bureau will investigate the claims of abuse.
NYPD spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Frances O’Donnell said: ‘The NYPD takes all allegations seriously and will review the claim, and initiate any appropriate action.
‘The NYPD urges anyone who has been a victim of sexual assault to file a police report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors.’
Mendez hopes her lawsuit will encourage other victims to come forward: “I hope it brings more women out so they can speak up about what is going on, whether they are getting raped or getting harassed or getting retaliated against,” she said.
“I don’t know if [victimized female officers] realize how badly they are getting abused or if they are so numb to it that they just think it’s normal to be treated this way,” she said.