Opinion ID: 759223
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Circumstances of Gierlinger's Employment

Text: 4 Gierlinger began duty as a probationary trooper in NYSP in March 1987, and after six months of training at the NYSP academy, was assigned in September 1987 to the NYSP station in Wellsville, New York. Wellsville was in zone 4 of NYSP Troop A. Falconer, New York, a station to which Gierlinger was later transferred, was in zone 3 of NYSP Troop A. At all pertinent times, Gleason was the Troop A commander. 5 On the night of December 2, 1987, Gierlinger arrived at work in Wellsville to find that the uniforms she kept in her locker at the station had been vandalized. The NYSP emblems on her shirts had been ripped off; and three pairs of her uniform trousers had been slit--two of them in the crotch. She reported the incident to a sergeant at the Wellsville station, who passed her complaint up the chain of command. She also reported the incident to a sergeant in NYSP's affirmative action office. 6 On December 5, Gleason was informed of the complaint and since he felt that [the complaint], in all probability, would come under the definition or classification of sexual harassment (Transcript of Third Trial (Third Trial Tr.), Aug. 19, 1996, at 550), he ordered Lieutenant Charles J. McCole, the zone commander for zone 4, to conduct an investigation. A few days later, NYSP headquarters took charge of the investigation, and eventually Staff Inspector Joseph M. Abate was assigned to investigate Gierlinger's complaints. 7 Abate investigated not only Gierlinger's complaints of the events of December 2 but also her complaints of other incidents, such as food being placed in her mail folder, her locker being overturned, and the lock on her locker being suffused with Super Glue. As a result of his investigations into these complaints, Abate concluded, in reports dated February 1 and 12, 1988, respectively, that the events of which Gierlinger complained had in fact occurred. However, the perpetrators of most of the incidents were never identified, and Abate's reports concluded that the events did not constitute sexual harassment. 8 In the meantime, on December 5, 1987, the day Gleason was informed of Gierlinger's complaints and instructed McCole to investigate, McCole met with Gierlinger to continue an evaluation session begun during the prior month and told Gierlinger, at length, that [h]er attitude and judgment ... were not satisfactory. (Memorandum from McCole to Troop A Commander [Gleason] re First Monthly Conference, dated December 8, 1987, at 2.) McCole also sent Gleason a memorandum reporting that during the December 5 conversation with Gierlinger, she complained that one trooper had said after an argument with her that no woman could talk to him in that manner, and that another trooper had been picking on her because of her gender. (Memorandum from McCole to Troop A Commander re Trooper Christine Gierlinger dated December 8, 1987, at 2.) 9 Contemporaneously, because Gierlinger was scheduled to be transferred from the Wellsville station to the Falconer station, an additional evaluation of her was prepared. That evaluation, in which McCole also participated, gave Gierlinger an overall rating of Needs Improvement and singled out for criticism her attitude and her judgment. (NYSP Transfer Performance Evaluation dated December 8, 1987, at 1-2.) Two days later, Gleason sent a memorandum to NYSP headquarters, stating that 10 Trooper Gierlinger has been counselled relative to her attitude and judgment. Specifically, she has been ordered to refrain from having her husband visit her while at work; leaving her issue baton with a defendant and also to refrain from confronting her supervisors when given constructive criticism. In addition, she is currently involved in a sexual harassment complaint in which she alleges that other members [of NYSP] assigned to SP Wellsville have harassed her. 11 (Memorandum from Gleason to Deputy Superintendent Jerome L. O'Grady dated December 10, 1987.) 12 During Abate's investigation of Gierlinger's complaint about the damage to her uniforms, Gierlinger stated that another female trooper in Troop A had been subjected to sexual harassment. Gleason was ordered to investigate that allegation. Accordingly, Gleason interviewed Gierlinger on January 27, 1988. At that interview, Gierlinger declined to describe any harassment of others, but she told Gleason that she personally had been sexually harassed on several occasions. Sometime thereafter, Abate informed Gleason that Gierlinger had complained to an NYSP affirmative action officer about the January 27 meeting. She complained that Gleason had been disrespectful to her, had been unreceptive to her complaints, and, seemingly indifferent to the sensitive subject matter, had conducted the interview within earshot of other NYSP employees. 13 Following his January 27 meeting with Gierlinger, Gleason launched several investigations into Gierlinger's own conduct. Two were commenced on February 1, 1988. One involved an allegation that on January 17 Gierlinger had allowed her husband, who was not a member of NYSP, to enter restricted areas of an NYSP station. The other involved Gierlinger's use of sick leave and was based on information--learned more than a month earlier from casual sources--that Gierlinger was spending time with her husband at his job. On February 11, 1988, Gleason ordered three more investigations into Gierlinger's conduct. One involved a complaint that Gierlinger had failed to comply with orders directing her to submit memoranda explaining instances of tardiness and altered time records. Another investigation involved a complaint that Gierlinger had abandoned her post at the station desk, refused to return to the desk when ordered to return, and demonstrated disrespect to a superior officer. At the conclusion of this investigation, Gleason wrote a memorandum to NYSP headquarters, stating I have determined that the penalties I can impose as Troop Commander are not sufficient in this matter. Recommend appropriate disciplinary action be commenced at the [headquarters] level. (Memorandum from Gleason to Chief Inspector Francis A. DeFrancesco dated March 1, 1988, at 2.) 14 The third February 11 investigation involved a New York State Thruway toll supervisor's complaint that Gierlinger, while driving her NYSP vehicle, had failed to pay the required toll. That investigation included taking a statement from the toll supervisor. The toll supervisor testified at trial that she had held that position for nine years and that, during that period, she had made complaints several times each year about NYSP troopers' failures to pay tolls. But the only such instance in which she had ever been asked to give a statement was the incident involving Gierlinger.