Spanish inquisition
Cop sues after ‘breaking’ English-only rule
A Hispanic cop is suing the NYPD over its English-only policy — saying she was reprimanded for answering a colleague in Spanish.
Jessenia Guzman, a Bronx resident whose family is from the Dominican Republic, claims in a new Manhattan lawsuit that the policy violates her civil and constitutional rights.
Guzman, 43, who has a master’s in social work from Columbia University, is a 16-year NYPD veteran.
In 2013, Guzman says, a supervisor wrote her up after “a quick interaction with a co-worker in Spanish,” according to the suit.
Guzman says in court papers that the co-worker asked, in Spanish, “What’s up,” and she responded, again in Spanish, “Nothing, just chillin’.”
The “quick, benign question” and answer resulted in a black mark being submitted to her personnel file in the form of a command discipline memo, the suit says.
Guzman claims in the she didn’t even realize the rule existed.
She’s suing for unspecified damages, claiming the reprimand was “discriminatory” and “humiliating.”
In a related federal court suit that was tossed in part because of juris- dictional issues, Guzman’s supervisor disputed her version of the incident.
Lt. Richard Khalaf said in a deposition that the Spanish conversation was “more egregious” than a simple greeting.
Instead, Khalaf says Guzman was “continually” speaking in Spanish to another female officer while he was standing in front of her.
An NYPD spokesman explained that “with over 50 different languages spoken by employees of the Department, our Office of Equal Employment Opportunity has established guidelines for members to speak English when they are conducting business for the department, unless speaking a foreign language is necessary to perform his or her duties.”
That policy was backed by former Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. His successor, Bill Bratton, has not commented publicly on the issue but he did appoint a Washington Heights cop to tweet in Spanish on behalf of the department.
The policy has been criticized by advocates, including Anthony Miranda of the National Latino Officers Association.
A city Law Department rep said, “We will review the allegations.”