An NYPD detective is suing the city, claiming his sergeant is a racist who gave him assignments that endangered his life when he challenged him on his attitude toward minorities.
Miguel Marte, of Dominican descent, claims William Planeta, his boss in the Document Fraud Squad, was an equal-opportunity bigot – making tasteless jokes about Jews, homosexuals, blacks and Hispanics.
He said that when he objected, Planeta – who is also named in the Brooklyn federal-court suit – made him take undercover assignments after he’d “flipped” to a regular job and become known on the streets.
“His life is endangered by this,” said Marte’s lawyer, Eric Sanders. “Once you’re flipped, you can’t go undercover anymore.”
The lawsuit claims racial discrimination, hostile work environment and retaliation, and seeks unspecified damages.
Marte said he was often the target of his sergeant’s “humor.”
He claimed that in 2006, Planeta asked him, “How was your Thanksgiving? No knives thrown across the table?”
Marte, a 17-year veteran of the force, also says Planeta failed to tell him to enter his name as a candidate for promotion, even though he was eligible.
The detective also claimed that Planeta would scrutinize his work more than that of his colleagues, frequently finding fault with the spelling and grammar in his reports.
According to the lawsuit, Planeta would assign more work to minority detectives than to whites.
The suit was filed after Marte took his complaint to the federal Equal Opportunity Commission. That agency found that he had cause to proceed.
Marte eventually got his promotion, no thanks to Planeta, according to Sanders.