Middlesex County
settles sexual harassment suit
against Sheriff
Joseph Spicuzzo
By GENE RACZ and KEN
SERRANO, from the Web, February 3, 2010
Middlesex County has paid $850,000 to
settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought against Sheriff Joseph Spicuzzo and
top officers in the department by five female sheriff's officers in 2004.
Following a settlement of the case, the county in the summer paid the female
officers $522,980 and another $327,020 to their attorney, County Counsel Thomas
Kelso said today.
The suit was filed in Superior Court, New Brunswick, on Aug. 13, 2004 by Jersey
City attorney Jeffrey Garrigan on behalf of Laury Hamilton, Eileen Mazzei, Gail
Decibus-Cuffe, Janet Martinez and Donna Karlson. The women contended they
were subjected to sexual propositions, innuendo, exposure to sexually explicit
materials and sexually derogatory language.
Also named in the suit were Undersheriff Angelo Falcone and Sgt. Bruce Allen.
Hamilton, a sheriff's officer since 1994, alleged that between 1994 and 2002 she
was greeted at work by Spicuzzo on a regular basis with a hug and a kiss on the
cheek. She said he would press himself against her during those hugs.
Spicuzzo and the other named defendants were eventually dropped from the suit,
leaving only the Middlesex County Sheriff's Department, Kelso said.
“The county made a financial decision to settle this case in order to bring an
end to this protracted litigation and eliminate any further potential cost to
the county,” Kelso said in a prepared statement. “At no time during the
course of the litigation did the county concede or acknowledge that the various
claims made by the plaintiffs were valid.”
Falcone and Allen are no longer with the department, but all five women
sheriff's officers are still on the job.
Ken Serrano: 732-565-7212;
kserrano@MyCentralJersey.com
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