By Sasha Gonzales and Kevin Deutsch
[email protected], [email protected]
A child abuse and sex crimes prosecutor at the Bronx District Attorney’s is suing the agency in federal court, alleging she was sexually harassed as part of a pattern of misconduct within the unit, court papers state.
Heba Abdelaal, a Muslim woman working cases in the DA’s office Special Victims Unit, says her supervisor showed her pictures of a defendant’s penis and sexually harassed her within a unit rife with unlawful behavior.
Abdelaal says in her $2.5 million lawsuit she was threatened with retaliation for complaining about the misconduct.
“The Bronx DA’s work environment is rampant with unlawful harassment, which goes unchecked and where the victims are retaliated against when they reject and complain about being sexually harassed by their supervisors and colleagues,” Abdelaal’s attorney, Christopher Lowe, wrote in the suit.
Bronx Justice News will follow up on this story when the city responds to Abdelaal’s suit in court.