12 Others also accused in case
By Walter Elliott
NEWARK – An Essex County Sheriff’s Office deputy has recently made public her multi-level harassment charges she had filed here in U.S. federal court against Sheriff Armando Fontoura and 12 other named and unnamed officers and officials Dec. 30.
Sheriff’s deputy Shari Carr, of Montclair, and Clifton attorney Valerie Michelle Palma Deluisi, to selected media outlets the last week, claim that the former had been subjected to demotion and workplace harassment based on her race and gender.
Both have named Fontoura, of Fairfield, Essex County Deputy Director of Human Resources Jacqueline Jones and her supervising sheriff’s officer John Goncalves in their suit. Their suit also lists “John/Jane Does 1-10” and “Essex County” as defendants.
Carr and Deluisi began talking with News 4 NY April 17 – 10 days after U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Mark Falk had negotiated a pre-trial timetable between the parties.
“Carr v. Essex County” has been in its evidence discovery phase since April 21. Both sides are to complete their discoveries Oct. 20.
Carr asserts that she had been harassed by Fontoura plus some top brass and officers 2017-19.
Action taken against Carr included her demotion from being a detective in the fugitive bureau to an officer in the transportation bureau. The demotion meant that she was working in a county building basement.
Carr said she was left off a valor awards program until just before the ceremony’s start.
Carr told News 4 that she was also instructed not “to have contact with any elected official on-m or off-duty.”
That latter directive, said Carr, came directly and indirectly from Fontoura. She said that included Essex County Democratic Committee-related public functions.
Fontoura, said Carr, told her that Jacqueline Jones felt “uncomfortable” by her presence. Jones happens to be the wife of longtime Essex County Democratic Committee Chairman Leroy Jones, Jr., of East Orange.
“I told the sheriff that I had been attending fundraisers on my own personal time,” said Carr. “He told me to stay away from Democratic Committee functions.”
Carr continued to attend the said functions until she said Fontoura “dragged” her out of a fundraiser held at West Orange’s Mayfair Farms.
The sheriff’s alleged directive came as a shock to Carr. Carr had attained Detective ranking in 2016. She was among eight Detective Bureau officers personally hailed by Fontoura for “Excellent Police Duty” During the May 17, 2017 National Police Week Awards.
Carr had also been photographed with the likes of Lt. Governor Sheila Y. Oliver (D-East Orange) at official functions.
“Shari Carr was exercising her (U.S.) Constitutional freedom of association,” said Deluisi. “The Constitution should not be bent to the will of the sheriff.”
Deluisi and Carr went to federal court here because they assert that Carr’s civil rights, as an African American woman, were violated.
Carr, in her filing, claims public humiliation, loss of reputation and severe emotional distress. Deluisi is seeking compensatory and punitive damages above recouping the suit’s court costs.
Attorneys representing the defendants, since their Jan. 28 response, have denied Carr’s most serious harassment allegation.
An Essex County spokesman has referred questions for the named defendants to designated attorney Courtney Gaccione. Gaccione, representing the county said that neither she or her client will “not comment on pending litigation.”
