Bellmorite sues Capitol Police for sex discrimination

Sourgoutsis: 'I hope they realize I'm not backing down'

Posted

Chris Sourgoutsis said she threw “all her chips in” when she left New York to join the U.S. Capitol police, which protects Congress. Today, however, she is back living with her parents in Bellmore and working at her family's restaurant while she prepares a discrimination case against the force that she said she gave all of herself to join.

In papers filed in U.S. District Court in June, Sourgoutsis, 32, claimed that a pattern of belittling began during her training in Georgia to become a Capitol officer. Soon she was receiving written disciplinary complaints for what she called minor infractions that male trainees would routinely get away with.

“Honestly, I'm somebody who believes in following my gut, so I felt the harassment and the discrimination from the beginning,” she said in an interview last week with the Herald. “But being a child of immigrant parents who taught me to just keep moving forward, I tried to just brush it under the rug.”

Among the infractions for which Sourgoutsis was written up were: being in improper uniform, talking on a cell phone during lunch and, on one occasion, sitting down briefly on a low stone wall during a double shift watching the Capitol Visitors Center.

According to Sourgoutsis, a superior, named in her suit, remarked about her physical appearance, told her she should wear makeup more often and routinely referred to her as “chica.”

One day, Sourgoutsis said, she was called to answer questions when another female officer-in-training made a written complaint about the male superior. Sourgoutsis, who was close to finishing her probationary period and was uncomfortable speaking up, said that she “actually asked to opt out of it.” She cooperated, however, describing the sergeant’s behavior, including “obscene pelvic gestures” that he made in front of herself and other recruits.

According to Sourgoutsis, she also told the investigator, “This is not a woman-oriented department.”

Two months later, she was stripped of her weapon and badge, with little explanation or chance of recourse, according to court documents. Sourgoutsis said she was denied the right to speak to her union representation prior to her final meeting, and was simply told that the human resources department was recommending her termination.

Sourgoutsis said she was at times at the top of her class among the new recruits. In court documents, she claims that several of her past supervisors praised her work ethic and, in one case, called her the “most improved recruit.”

When called by the Herald, a Capitol police spokeswoman had no comment about this case. In court documents, however, the Capitol police dispute Sourgoutsis’s claim that she was ever near or at the top of her class.

In the documents, the Capitol police also deny most of Sourgotsis’s claims, including her characterization of various meetings with superiors, and say that she took the legal route before exhausting her other options.

Capitol police officials say that all actions toward or against Sourgoutsis “were taken for legitimate, non-discriminatory and non-retaliatory reasons,” according to court documents, adding that Sourgotsis’s claims for damages are “speculative in nature.”

They have asked that a federal court throw out the suit with prejudice, which would mean that Sourgoutsis could not file another suit for the same claim. It could be months before a decision is rendered.

According to court documents, Sourgoutsis would like her termination to be scrubbed from her record, to be reinstated with pay for lost work and to receive compensation for emotional damages.

Attorney Tom Harrington is representing Sourgoutsis. A friend on the force recommended that she bring her case to the Employment Law Group in Washington, D.C., Harrington’s firm.

Harrington acknowledged that some of the evidence supporting Sourgotsis’s claims about her work performance would depend on how the Capitol police maintain records and what they release. Beyond that, he said, he might call witnesses. By all accounts, he said, her performance during her probationary period was “excellent.”

Sourgoutsis said last week that she had invested too much time and energy into becoming a Capitol police officer to resign –– which department officials had offered her the chance to do, rather than be fired.

“I’ve never felt more violated and disgusted in my life, which is why I decided to fight this thing,” she said. “Someone needs to hold the Capitol police responsible.”