S.F. settles ex-cop’s lawsuit for $350,000

Decade-long campaign of harassment alleged

A former San Francisco police officer, who said she was the victim of a harassment campaign by other officers, will receive $350,000 from the city in a lawsuit settlement that the Board of Supervisors approved Tuesday.

Linda Chen, 64, sued the Police Department and city controller’s office in November 2014 in San Francisco Superior Court, claiming discrimination, harassment and retaliation that left her with emotional trauma and a permanent disability. She said police officials had repeatedly told her her allegations were being investigated, but that the city never did anything about them.

Chen’s lawsuit said the trouble started in March 2003 when someone cut the left brake line of her car while it was parked near the sheriff ’s office. Four police officers who investigated the incident found the suspected vandal was one of Chen’s co-workers but wouldn’t tell her who it was, the suit says.

After that, Chen began putting trip hazards around her desk at the department’s traffic station to protect herself, the suit says. She stopped going to morning lineups for fear of

exposing herself to colleagues who wanted to harm her, according to her complaint.

“She was repeatedly made to feel as if she was just being a fussy, overly concerned woman for reporting the harassment, discrimination and threats to her safety, and was encouraged time and time again to stop reporting her fears,” the suit says.

One month after the brakeslashing incident, someone removed the lug nuts from the left front wheel of her car, according to the complaint. A month after that, the suit says, Chen found a bottle shoved onto her trailer hitch in a Police Department parking lot. In December 2003, the suit says, someone tampered with her desk, causing it to collapse.

Police investigators told Chen other officers were suspected of the harassment, but they wouldn’t say who, the complaint said.

A decade later, in December 2013, Chen was working at Mission Station when a male officer grabbed her in a bear hug, poked her buttocks repeatedly and whispered in her ear, “Tell me what I need to know,” the suit says. The officer was never disciplined, according to the complaint.

Chen, who joined the Police Department in 1981, went on medical leave from December 2013 to September 2014, saying she suffered back pain and emotional distress. She said police officials trivialized her allegations and didn’t give her a new job that would accommodate her disabilities when she returned to work.

Chen retired in March 2017.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera denied Chen’s allegations, but the city settled with her.

“Given the costs and uncertainty of litigation, this settlement is a fair outcome for everyone involved,” city attorney’s spokesman John Cote said.

Police Department officials declined to comment on Chen’s allegations or the settlement.