FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Former NYPD recruit alleges Academy supervisors sexualized a male recruit’s alleged assault, falsely framed it as domestic violence, and then forced her out.

New York, New York — June 15, 2026 — Eric Sanders, Esq., of The Sanders Firm, P.C. has filed a Verified Complaint in Bronx Supreme Court on behalf of — SLIMS FLORENTINO, a Dominican woman and former probationary New York City Police Department recruit, alleging that the NYPD Police Academy punished her after she reported hostile, discriminatory, retaliatory, and unsafe Academy conditions.

The lawsuit names THE CITY OF NEW YORK, Police Commissioner JESSICA S. TISCH, Chief of Training MARTINE N. MATERASSO, Deputy Chief CHRIS D. MORELLO, and multiple NYPD Academy supervisors, instructors, officers, and recruit-level defendants.

According to the Verified Complaint, FLORENTINO entered the NYPD Police Academy qualified. She passed required academic, physical, and firearms components, including the 1.5-mile run, the Job Standard Test, written examinations, and firearms qualification. Her performance was not the issue. The issue, she alleges, was what happened when she became the recruit who reported danger.

The Complaint alleges that the Academy environment included gendered hostility, sexualized assumptions, race, ethnicity, and national-origin hostility, isolation, restroom surveillance, property damage, coordinated threats, and a planned locker-room assault. FLORENTINO alleges that fellow recruits targeted her, called her a “snitch,” isolated her, followed her into the restroom, damaged her property, and escalated the hostility into a planned assault inside the female locker room.

According to the lawsuit, Recruit Kason Brabham warned FLORENTINO that defendants ASTRID A. ORTIZ, ANYSSACHEYENNE A. BIGGS, JADAMIL SANCHEZ, and CIELO P. COLON planned to attack her in the locker room at approximately 1900 hours. The alleged setup matters: FLORENTINO alleges the female locker room was selected because it was isolated, unsupervised, and no one inspected recruit bags.

“This was not alleged schoolyard drama,” said Eric Sanders, Esq., attorney for FLORENTINO. “This was a police training facility. A female recruit allegedly reported that other recruits planned to jump her in an isolated locker room. The only acceptable response was protection, evidence preservation, and accountability. The lawsuit alleges the NYPD Academy failed all three.”

The Complaint alleges that FLORENTINO reported the planned assault, group-chat evidence, property damage, and unsafe conditions to defendant YADIRIS A. TAVERAS. Rather than ensure that the evidence was preserved, TAVERAS allegedly told recruits to “delete it,” “unsend it,” and “make it look like it didn’t happen.” FLORENTINO alleges that this was evidence tampering, spoliation, concealment, and interference with a workplace-safety and discrimination-related investigation.

The Complaint alleges that defendant CHRIS D. MORELLO, a command-level Academy actor, was placed on notice, disbanded recruit company 25-95, and suspended COLON. FLORENTINO alleges that this command response confirmed the seriousness of her report. But according to the lawsuit, the Department did not suspend all recruits allegedly involved, did not preserve all relevant phones, group chats, deleted messages, unsent messages, surveillance, and witness evidence, and did not protect FLORENTINO from retaliation.

The lawsuit alleges that the retaliation spread through the Academy. Defendant MERAJ A. CHAUDARY, an NYPD Police Academy instructor and officer in charge of recruit company 25-100, allegedly photographed FLORENTINO without a legitimate work-related purpose, circulated or caused the circulation of her image to other members of the service, made gendered and appearance-based comments about her, spread a retaliatory narrative, and later sent or caused the circulation of a Department-wide communication stating that instructors were excited plaintiff had been suspended.

The Complaint also alleges explicit ethnic, national-origin, and perceived immigration-status hostility. FLORENTINO alleges that defendant ANYSSACHEYENNE A. BIGGS stated that a cafeteria worker was only giving FLORENTINO a burger because FLORENTINO was Hispanic and the worker was Spanish. FLORENTINO further alleges that defendant NATALIE L. BARNES later stated, in substance, that “apparently CAD only hires immigrants non-English speakers.”

“These comments are not window dressing,” Sanders said. “When a Dominican recruit alleges she is isolated, mocked, denied fair treatment, subjected to ethnic and immigrant-based comments, and then forced out after reporting misconduct, those facts go directly to discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation.”

The headline allegation arises from the Department’s response after defendant ABEL GUERRERO-CEDENO allegedly struck FLORENTINO from behind with a duffle bag and injured her leg. According to the Complaint, defendant JOHN J. SEMINERIO suggested that the strike may have been a “bad method of flirting” or connected to GUERRERO-CEDENO offering FLORENTINO lunch and being rejected.

The Department then allegedly framed the matter as “domestic violence other MOS on MOS,” despite FLORENTINO having no domestic, romantic, intimate, family, household, or statutory relationship with GUERRERO-CEDENO. FLORENTINO alleges that the false domestic-violence label contaminated her Academy record, suspension, training access, disciplinary processing, Risk Management review, and forced-resignation sequence.

“The allegation is damning because it shows the Department’s lens,” Sanders said. “A male recruit allegedly strikes a woman from behind. A supervisor allegedly calls it a ‘bad method of flirting.’ Then the Department allegedly labels it domestic violence when there was no domestic relationship. That is how a woman’s injury report becomes a disciplinary weapon.”

The Complaint alleges that defendant ALBERTO GONZALEZ participated in suspending FLORENTINO, stripping her of Department equipment and access, and removing her from recruit training. Defendant OLIVIA SICILIANO allegedly participated in intimidation, the sexualized and disciplinary response to the GUERRERO-CEDENO incident, the photographing of FLORENTINO’S injury on a personal phone, the suspension process, vest-related threats, and later “perjury” and unauthorized-tour-change accusations.

After FLORENTINO returned to modified duty, the Complaint alleges that BARNES became a central post-suspension retaliatory actor. BARNES allegedly addressed FLORENTINO as “Slims,” made derogatory remarks concerning immigrants and non-English-speaking recruits, accused FLORENTINO of “perjury” in a logbook, shook her badge in FLORENTINO’S face, obstructed training information, participated in manufactured discipline, and treated FLORENTINO less favorably during modified-duty and training-exclusion periods.

The lawsuit further alleges that defendant MATTHEW S. MISENER participated in the Department’s response when FLORENTINO reported the planned locker-room assault, had notice that she sought protection from coordinated recruit violence, participated in the GUERRERO-CEDENO/IAB/suspension process, walked her out after suspension, sent reporting instructions, and later provided information concerning drivers training.

According to the Complaint, FLORENTINO was later told that Risk Management had recommended termination, that the matter would proceed through Department channels, and that she could either resign or await termination with collateral consequences for future public employment. FLORENTINO alleges that her resignation was not voluntary in any meaningful sense. She alleges it was the foreseeable result of sexual harassment, race, ethnicity, national-origin and perceived immigration-status discrimination, hostile work environment, actual or perceived domestic-violence victim status discrimination, retaliation, disabled Department access, training exclusion, manufactured discipline, termination-track processing, and forced-resignation pressure.

The lawsuit asserts claims under the New York State Human Rights Law and the New York City Human Rights Law. FLORENTINO seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages where available, attorneys’ fees, costs, interest, equitable relief, correction, removal, or expungement of contaminated NYPD records, reinstatement, graduation from the NYPD Police Academy upon completion of lawful remaining requirements, and assignment to a permanent police command to complete the field-training process.

“This case is about the comments, but it is not only about comments,” Sanders said. “It is about what those comments allegedly revealed: an Academy culture where a woman’s safety report could be mocked, an alleged assault could be sexualized, immigrant and ethnic hostility could be ignored, evidence could be told to disappear, and the reporting recruit could be pushed out.”

The allegations in the Verified Complaint are allegations. The defendants have not yet answered, and the claims will be tested in court.

About The Sanders Firm, P.C.

The Sanders Firm, P.C. is a New York-based law firm focused on civil rights, immigration, employment discrimination, police misconduct, and other high-stakes matters. Its founder and president, Eric Sanders, Esq., is a retired NYPD officer who brings a rare inside perspective to the intersection of government power, public institutions, enforcement discretion, and constitutional accountability.

For more than twenty years, Sanders has counseled thousands of clients and handled complex matters involving police use of force, sexual harassment, retaliation, systemic discrimination, immigration consequences, and related civil-rights violations. He is widely recognized as a leading New York civil-rights attorney and a prominent voice on evidence-based policing, institutional accountability, equal justice, and rights-based immigration advocacy.

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