Steeve Juillet, a Haitian-born policeman in New York, has filed a lawsuit against his white supervisors, saying they routinely bullied him and his colleagues in the Times Square Command.

Filing the suit in Manhattan Supreme Court on June 30, Juillet said that his supervisor mocked his accent and told him he looked like a homeless person while giving him punitive job assignments and unfair subpar job evaluations.

“I think most discrimination cases are a form of bullying," Juillet’s lawyer, John Scola, said. “I think bullying is widespread in the Times Square Command, particularly for Black officers.”

The plaintiff identified a supervisor named Sgt. James Fills, who allegedly mocked another officer who later took his own life. According to the lawsuit, the deceased officer, who is white, shot himself to death inside his apartment in April on the same day he filed a complaint about his supervisor. Sgt. Miguel Brand, a Times Square supervisory officer, spoke up at roll call the next day, saying the bullying in the command must stop.

The New York Police Department launched an internal investigation, looking to determine whether the officer took his own life because of how supervisors treated him. An NYPD spokesman said investigators have interviewed multiple colleagues and supervisors, but they didn't find evidence to prove that the late officer was bullied.

Juillet was interviewed about Brand’s acknowledgment of the bullying happening in the command. He was ordered to undergo a departmental psychiatric examination because he broke down while discussing the late officer.

“I really feel there’s something going on,” the investigator said to Juillet after he broke down.

“There’s nothing going on,” Juillet responded. “I just feel it’s some type of retaliation going on. I never said I want to hurt myself.”

The complaint states that the policeman returned to full duty after being cleared by a department doctor.

“But now everyone knows this is what they did to me,” Juillet said. “Of course, no one is going to want to say anything. They’re afraid they’ll do the same thing to them.”

According to the Daily News, New York has seen an increase in police suicides in recent years. Ten active-duty NYPD officers died by suicide in 2019, leading to an increased discussion on mental health outreach for police.

Steeve Juillet

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