BY WALTER ELLIOTT
NEWARK – The civil lawsuit that was filed here in New Jersey Federal District Court Aug. 29 describes allegations of sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, discrimination and wrongful termination by the plaintiff against her peers and supervisors.
The suit, filed by plaintiff Laura Ciesla, of Caldwell, and the Abrams Fensterman LLP firm, of Lake Success, N.Y., has named the City of Newark on the cover page of the 32-page filing. Mentioned within those 32 pages, however, are Mayor Ras Baraka and 13 Newark police officers up to the rank of captain.
The mayor’s name comes up in the midst of five NPD officers accused by Ciesla of sexual harassment. They include unwanted comments, invites to dinners and trips and requests for photos including of her tattoos. The mayor and three of the officers were married with children at the time, which the defendant brought up in her rebuffs or attempted rebuffs.
Two of the above plus another 10 officers were named in the suit’s content regarding her unlawful dismissal. Ciesla said she was forced to resign Sept. 5, 2024 in the wake of a police medical services unit doctor’s July 31 determination that she was “unfit for duty/nonrestorable.”
That doctor’s decision ended a train of events, which began with a random drug test on May 15, 2023 and a second random test that November. The first test came up positive for a prescribed painkiller for her dislocated shoulder, which she said did not use while on duty and that she had advised her superiors ahead of time. Four officers from the Internal Affairs Department came to the Robbery Squad she was working at, however, and took her firearm.
The train of events included whether to accept paper or online documentation from her doctor and pharmacist and IAD charging her with fraud through submitting false documents. The charges, which were sent to and dismissed by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, boiled down to a departmental trial for “being uncooperative’ and two other charges; all three charges were dropped but not before IAD took her Robbery Squad desktop computer.
Ciesla’s NPD supervisors put her on the overnight shift, which she said she was having trouble adapting to – once unable to sleep for 72 hours. She was diagnosed at Cooperman-Barnabas Hospital in November 2023 with a neurosis and was hospitalized at Newark Beth Israel Hospital for 10 days.
It was during that 10-day hospitalization where NPD officers made two welfare calls at her home -and found her absent. Ciesla said the medical department knew she was in Newark Beth-Israel; her supervisors scheduled her for a fitness for duty exam.
Ciesla was among “Newark’s Finest” 2018-24. She was admitted to the police academy that August at 1 Lincoln Ave. and was assigned Class Leader. She graduated with the class of December 2018 with class leader commendation.
One supervisor in 2019 told her, however, that the only reason that she had graduated was because she was a white woman.
Ciesla was first assigned to patrols in the Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Precincts. She was the first woman to be permanently assigned to the Future Apprehension Section January 2020- April 2021. From there, she was “permanently assigned” to the Fourth Precinct Patrol Division, becoming the assignment officer.
Ciesla received a requested transfer to the Fifth Precinct Aug. 1, 2022, becoming a crime analyst for the Major Crimes Division – Robbery Section. The sexual harassment, however, began three years earlier where a then-detective, later Fraternal Order of Police president, made several advances on her.
One lieutenant messaged Ciesla, saying he wanted to see all of her tattoos, including ones hidden by clothing. Another lieutenant found her personal phone number from the staff roster and started texting her.
Mayor Baraka, in the filing, began flirting with Ciesla in December 2020, offering her several times to “go to a spa in NY with him and wanting to kiss her.” The mayor once sent her a photo of her playing volleyball while she was in college.
The requests to take trips with him to Hoboken, dinner, photos of her showering and began sending messages on Signal for privacy. Ciesla kept turning him down.
Baraka, when asked at a public function Sept. 3, told a reporter to see his lawyers.
Newark Corporate Counsel Kenyatta Stewart issued the following statement: The city completely denies the allegations in the complaint against the Mayor and the Newark Police Division. The city will be conducting a full-fledged investigation into this matter.”
Capt. John J. Chrystal II of the Newark Superior Officers Association and Newark FOP Lodge No. 12 have declined to comment as of press time.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jose R. Almonte and Judge Evelyn Padin have been assigned to the case. A federal Department of Justice summons was issued to the city Sept. 2.
