An NYPD boss accused of sexually harassing a male sergeant is suing the man for slander.
Deputy Inspector Thomas Connolly is under investigation for claims he made unwanted sexual advances toward an employee, Sgt. Nelson Fernandez - who has filed a formal complaint with the NYPD's Office of Equal Employment Opportunity.
Connolly, a 27-year veteran, insists there are "no merits to Fernandez's accusations," his lawyer, Louis La Pietra said.
"But Fernandez knows it's going to be investigated and he knows that a superior officer, in the midst of that complaint, is going to have his career put on hold."
Connolly, commander of Transit District 4, filed a $3 million slander lawsuit last month in Orange County, where Fernandez lives.
Fernandez told the Daily News in June that Connolly would call him into his Union Square office, lean back in his seat and suggestively suck on his pen and leer at Fernandez's crotch. Fernandez's complaint also accused Connolly of calling Fernandez "sexy" and rubbing his arm during subway patrols.
The complaint is still being investigated. Fernandez now works at the new World Trade Center Command, while Connolly still runs Transit District 4.
On the day Fernandez contends Connolly sucked lewdly on a pen, he'd been summoned to his boss' office to answer questions about failing to be at his assigned post, La Pietra said. Connolly believed Fernandez was not at his assigned post when an iPod robbery took place in the Essex St. station on the lower East Side. Fernandez got a verbal reprimand, but was not formally disciplined.
Fernandez's lawyer, Eric Sanders, said Connolly's lawsuit is a failed attempt to silence and intimidate him.
"This is more fodder for me," Sanders said.
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