The NYPD chief in command of Manhattan above 59th Street held a contest for “best dressed,” targeting female cops, with a $700 prize during a 2023 holiday party, claiming he had approval from the department’s Legal Bureau, according to a sexual harassment lawsuit filed Friday.
Assistant Chief Ruel Stephenson of Patrol Borough Manhattan North served as a “judge” of the contest on Dec. 13, 2023 at the Glen Island Harbor Club in New Rochelle, going from table to table appraising female cops in plunging gowns under his command.
The allegations emerged in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan state court by Lt. Mariela Matos-Leo, who claims Stephenson sexually harassed her in 2022 and then tried to derail her career after she rebuffed his advances.
“There was no prize for best dressed man,” said Matos-Leo of the holiday party contest.
According to a law enforcement source, the NYPD Legal Bureau was neither aware of nor approved the contest, but the department’s separate Office of Equity and Inclusion was consulted and did approve it.
Matos-Leo’s lawsuit turns on her claim that after she ignored Stephenson’s repeated invitations one year earlier to the command’s 2022 holiday party, he mounted a campaign of criticism of her work that cost her better assignments and made her life miserable.
Matos-Leo’s lawyer John Scola says the case is another example of the NYPD’s “longstanding culture of sexual harassment and retaliation.”
“A ‘best dressed’ contest for women at a workplace event sends a clear message that career advancement isn’t based on merit but on catering to the boss’s personal desires,” Scola said.
“It forces women into an impossible choice, either sexualize themselves to stay in favor or risk retaliation, just like Lt. Matos-Leo.”
In a statement, an NYPD spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit but said, “The department does not tolerate sexual harassment and is committed to respectful work environments for our diverse workforce. The NYPD thoroughly investigates all complaints it receives, and offers several reporting options for NYPD employees, including anonymously.”
Matos-Leo, 40, joined the NYPD in 2006. She was promoted to sergeant in 2015.
In 2019, she sued the NYPD over a complex saga involving an allegedly abusive boyfriend, who was also a police officer, claiming other cops retaliated against her for filing a criminal complaint against the boyfriend, court records show.
The city settled that lawsuit in 2023 for $60,000, Scola said.
In October 2022, Matos-Leo was promoted to lieutenant and assigned to the 24th Precinct on the Upper West Side, where Stephenson’s office is also housed.
Soon after she arrived, she says, Stephenson was solicitous under the guise of inviting her to the upcoming holiday party several weeks away.
“He took my hand and introduced himself and told me to see him if I ever needed anything, and then told his driver, ‘We’ve got to tell her about the party,’” she said. “He was holding my hand the whole time.”
“After that, every time I saw him, he would say, ‘Don’t forget, you have to come to my party,’ Or he would tell his driver to remind me.”
Matos-Leo was so uncomfortable at the attention she skipped the party.
Stephenson’s manner toward her then changed, she alleges. “This is how the chief gets when he is rejected,” a fellow sergeant told her, the lawsuit claims.
Stephenson began criticizing her work in front of other supervisors. In an April 2023 citywide meeting, he pointed to Matos-Leo and said, “This is what not to do as a supervisor.”
A lieutenant inadvertently left his microphone on and said, “Why is this man being such a d–k to this girl?”
Stephenson overheard the remark and demanded to know who made it. That lieutenant was later disciplined, the lawsuit claims.
In a May 2023 meeting, Stephenson told Matos-Leo “If he had the power, he would fire her because her work is mediocre,” the lawsuit said.
“It got to the point where people recognized me,” she said. “Everyone knew he would take any chance to drag me through the mud.”
After that, Matos-Leo began putting in for transfers to various other units.
In December, 2023, Stephenson hosted the holiday party with the contest. Tickets were $150, a flyer shows. Matos-Leo showed The News photos of the event including pictures of female cops in slinky dresses that left little to the imagination.
Matos-Leo also found herself under the microscope from commanders who either worked under Stephenson or previously worked for him. “He’s the top dog and so it follows you,” she said. “He persuades them that you are crazy or incompetent and your rep gets destroyed.”
In February 2024, Inspector Kevin Taylor was transferred from command of the School Safety Division to work under Stephenson. He’d later be placed on desk duty and had to surrender his phones amid a series of corruption investigations that embroiled the Adams administration; Taylor has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Taylor demanded Matos-Leo salute him every time she saw him even when he had just emerged from the gym, she claims. He also ordered her to write down every order she gave cops under her command, the suit says.
In May, she asked for a transfer to one of the Transit Bureau, but specifically requested not to be transferred to Transit District 4 at Union Square. She was transferred there anyway in June.
At the transit district, Matos-Leo got into a running conflict with a female sergeant under her command who is close to the unit commander, Deputy Inspector Joseph Pulgarin, the suit alleges.
The sergeant allegedly ignored Matos-Leo’s orders at times and sometimes called her “crazy” or otherwise made fun of her.
At one point she tried to discipline the sergeant, but Pulgarin, who previously worked under Stephenson, blocked it.
In September, she met with Pulgarin, but the commander again refused to discipline the sergeant, the lawsuit says.
“That’s when I decided to sue,” she said. “I did not want to go to this command. I have been so beat up and disrespected, I had enough. I was just going to retire, but now I’m determined to fight to be heard.”
Matos-Leo claims Stephenson’s alleged retaliation caused her to make less than male lieutenants and cost her as much as $1.7 million in lost pension benefits, the lawsuit alleges.
Matos-Leo can retire when she hits 20 years of service in 2026. For now, she is bouncing back and forth between her uncomfortable work situation and her young children, an 11-year-old son with autism and a seven-year-old daughter with lupus.
“It takes a lot of strength to deal with this,” she said. “If you go to work and show any emotion, I could potentially lose everything.”