Lawsuit: Ex-attorney fired for refusing to cover up N-word findings against Delisle >>
TRENTON >> Kill the messenger.
Former assistant city attorney Jacqueline AbdurRazzaq wants $10 million over claims that Mayor Reed Gusciora’s newly confirmed law director fired her for issuing a damning report that confirmed misconduct allegations against a high-ranking cabinet member, according to documents obtained by The Trentonian.
Abdur-Razzaq is demanding back pay and compensatory and punitive damages over her alleged unjust dismissal this spring.
She was the city attorney tapped to probe claims that Ben Delisle, the city’s housing and economic development director, used the Nword to another employee while discussing struggles with legislators.
She was fired in April after determining that Delisle discriminated against and sexually harassed fellow employees, according to a tort claim notice.
“The Director of the Housing and Economic Development Department violated EEOC policies including, racial discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, creating a hostile work environment, and violated the New Jersey LAD Statute concerning several employees,” attorney Telissa Lindsey wrote in the tort claim notice, which was obtained by The Trentonian through a public records request.
The Razzaq report, which
has never been made public, also found Delisle created a hostile work environment and retaliated against employees for reporting wrongdoing.
Delisle remains on staff despite the findings, which could give the city cause to remove him from his post.
The notice, a precursor to a lawsuit, names Gusciora, law director Wes Bridges and business administrator Adam Cruz as involved in the retaliation scheme.
Bridges, who started as interim law director in December, defended himself against the allegations, saying he “wasn’t even in the building” when the city opened a probe into Delisle.
He said Abdur-Razzaq’s findings “played no part whatsoever, was not even a consideration, in my decision to let her go.”
Gusciora and Delisle didn’t immediately respond to phone calls seeking comment.
A spokesman for Gusciora said the findings of her investigation “would have no bearing on any decision regarding her employment.”
The ousted assistant city attorney — who made $109,000 a year — named at least seven current and former Trenton employees as witnesses, including former city directors John Morelli and Shakira AbdulAli, and the woman who first stepped forward with claims against Delisle.
Tanzania Green, who is Black, complained to city officials last August that Delisle spelled out the Nword in her presence while they discussed city business at her desk.
According to the complaint, Delisle opened up the conversation by asking Green why she was no longer talking to him and if she was “happy” at work.
The conversation soon went off the rails, Green wrote, as Delisle vented over frustrations with legislators.
He allegedly told the employee that council members didn’t like the mayor “because he’s gay, white and they feel like he’s not from Trenton because he wasn’t in the Streets [sic], but he is a good Person [sic],” according to the complaint.
Green rebutted Delisle’s claims that much of the animus was from individuals who “never left Trenton.”
“I expressed that’s not the issue and Trentonians don’t understand what’s happening in Trenton and the direction of the city which is what’s causing confusion, which creates tension and it’s our job to inform them,” the employee wrote. “Ben replies with saying, ‘A lot of these people [sic] behavior is that ‘N-I-G-G-E-R mentality.’”
Local union bigwig Ron McMullen claimed in an interview with The Trentonian last year that Green wasn’t alone in her allegations against the housing director.
He alleged that AbdulAli, the Black former health director, heard Delisle use racial slurs.
Abdul-Ali, who left for another job, refused to confirm that claim when reached for comment last year, saying only that she had a “very good professional relationship” with Delisle.
The allegations in AbdurRazzaq’s
filing will likely reignite impassioned pleas from some legislators to examine whether Delisle, who survived a Rice inquiry last year, should remain employed.
West Ward councilwoman Robin Vaughn has made it clear how she feels about the allegations against Delise, as she led last year’s push for council to further probe the claims.
Delisle found supporters in at-large councilman Jerell Blakeley, who cautioned against a rush to judgement while imperiling colleagues as hypocrites for thinking they have “any moral authority to judge anyone for what are unproven allegations.”
“This is just another attempt to go after the mayor. ... I’ve known Ben Delisle to be a dedicated professional, committed to the city of Trenton. We have to be extremely careful that we do not destroy somebody’s reputation by rumor and innuendo.”
Blakeley was referring to council president Kathy McBride and Vaughn.
McBride used an anti-Semitic slur during an executive session in 2019, and Vaughn was caught on tape attacking the openly gay mayor during a coronavirus briefing last year.
The councilman found himself in his own controversy after The Trentonian revealed that he called McBride an “illiterate crackhead prostitute” during a separate COVID-19 call last year.
McBride said she couldn’t talk when reached for comment Monday about AbdurRazzaq’s claims.