Amanjeet S. Sandhu, c/o 50-a.org
A female NYPD officer who worked in a transit district on the Upper West Side says a deputy chief promised to get her transferred anywhere she wanted, as long as she limited her complaint to a single locker room confrontation and left the rest out.
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Officer Maria Delacruz makes the claim in a lawsuit filed October 21 in Manhattan Supreme Court. The suit centers on Amanjeet Sandhu, who was a captain and the commanding officer of Transit District 1 at Columbus Circle when she worked there and is now a deputy inspector. It also names Deputy Chief Steven Mauriello, the commanding officer of Transit Borough Manhattan; Deputy Inspector Tamecca Greene; Lt. Maria Franco; Officer Rosario Montero; Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch; and the City of New York. The suit, which was first reported by the New York Post, seeks damages including back pay and punitive damages under the state and city human rights laws.Delacruz joined the NYPD in July 2021 and was assigned to the district in January 2022. Beginning in January 2023, Sandhu started choosing her as his driver, and by March he was picking her almost every workday, according to the suit. She says she initially welcomed it, because Sandhu had stepped in to help her with scheduling around her son and approved leave another supervisor opposed. Eventually she was spending entire tours in his office or in his department vehicle, often with the door closed.
The suit says that over the course of 2023, Sandhu pushed her to call him by his first name, commented on her breasts and buttocks, told her about dreams of having sex with her, and twice changed his pants in front of her in his office. During one drive, she says, he tried to kiss her. She pushed him away and told him he was married, and he responded angrily, asking why she didn’t want to be with him, according to the lawsuit.
On October 11, 2023, while she was off duty, Sandhu sent her a long text message saying he loved her, wanted her to see him as a lover rather than her supervisor and would leave his wife for her, according to the suit. She says she responded carefully because she was afraid of losing the protection he’d given her at work.
That December, at the Patrol Borough Manhattan South Christmas party, Sandhu allegedly grabbed her arm and told her she was leaving with him that night to sleep with him. Delacruz had brought a female friend, and the suit says the friend told Sandhu to let go because he was hurting her. Delacruz says she had a red mark on her arm afterward and that Sandhu left the party without saying goodbye.
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Delacruz says she never had a sexual relationship with Sandhu, but rumors spread through the district that she did. At one point, she says, Sandhu’s wife called her and accused her of being involved with him.On July 17, 2024, Montero confronted Delacruz in the women’s locker room while she was changing and accused her of getting special treatment because she was sleeping with the captain, according to the suit. Delacruz says she reported it at the desk right away. Later that day, she went to Mauriello and asked why he was telling people she was sleeping with Sandhu. “Everyone here thinks that,” he replied, according to the suit.
Before a written report on her complaint was prepared, Mauriello allegedly told her that if she kept it to what happened in the locker room, he’d make sure she was transferred wherever she wanted. The department’s report on the incident, which was logged with Internal Affairs, described it as a verbal dispute over the locker room lights and was closed with no further investigation, the suit says. Nine days later, Delacruz says, she found a Bible on top of her locker, opened to the Psalms, along with salt, black tape and material about adultery.
Delacruz transferred to Transit District 32 in Brooklyn in late July 2024. The suit says Greene, its commanding officer, promised to protect her but told her she didn’t want to hear anything about what had happened at her old district, then sent her on personal errands and had her use Greene’s ID card to record Greene as present for duty. After the transfer, Mauriello sent her an Instagram friend request, according to the suit.
Sandhu’s messages didn’t stop either, she says. In September 2024, after she reached out to him for help with her new command, he allegedly sent her a pornographic video through WhatsApp’s disappearing-message feature. The suit says he also repeatedly asked her about her sex life, and in November 2024 sent her a sexually explicit photo of a woman. Delacruz says she objected each time.
Delacruz said she initially stayed quiet because she feared retaliation. “I didn’t feel like there was anyone I could go to,” she told the Post.
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Sandhu didn’t return the Post’s call seeking comment, and Mauriello didn’t return the Post’s message. An NYPD spokesperson told the Post the department hadn’t been served with the suit yet and would respond once it was. None of the allegations have been tested in court.The suit lists Delacruz’s case alongside other recent sexual misconduct allegations at the department, including claims that former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey traded overtime for sex with a subordinate, which he’s denied, and the case of former Inspector Jeremy Scheublin, who has pleaded not guilty to charges including the attempted rape of a female officer.
Delacruz, who earned a master’s degree this spring and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army last month, is still with the NYPD. She told the Post she hopes her story helps other female officers “feel safe to speak up.”
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