New York, NY – A recently-retired New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer has filed a $35 million lawsuit, accusing her former captain of serially raping her for more than a year while they worked together.
According to the lawsuit filed in Bronx Supreme Court on Monday, Gillian Roberts, a Black woman, says she retired from the NYPD early last month because she could no longer endure being an “unwilling sex slave” to her “perverted” captain, Jeffrey Brienza.
Roberts, 47, alleges that Capt. Brienza, 48, raped her “nearly every gameday” for a year while they were both assigned to detail at Yankee Stadium.
After serving more than 20 years in the NYPD, Roberts was given the opportunity to join the Yankee Stadium detail in March 2020.
According to Roberts, when she first started working the position Capt. Brienza took her under his wing and made her his driver.
The complaint states that the first alleged assault took place at the end of a shift in June 2020. Roberts said she was in the bathroom when Brienza came in and grabbed her from behind “very forcefully and tightly.”
“Ms. Roberts yelled, ‘No!’ and tried peeling her attacker’s hands off of her, to which Captain Brienza responded by saying, ‘Yes’ as he forcefully turned her around,” the lawsuit states. “Captain Brienza placed his hands around Ms. Roberts’ neck and forced her head down towards his waistline, where his penis was already out of his pants and erect, and forced Ms. Roberts to perform oral sex without protection.”
Brienza then placed Roberts “against the counter and raped her vaginally with no protection,” according to the lawsuit.
After the first rape, Brienza would regularly call Roberts into his office where he would “shove her head down, forcing her to perform unprotected oral sex”, the lawsuit states.
According to the lawsuit, the captain would also frequently make her drive him a certain route home, and pull over along the way to make her perform oral sex on him.
“This occurred nearly every game day for a year, and most non-game days when they were on duty at the same time when he would arrange for them to be alone,” the lawsuit states.
Roberts said when she tried to resist his advances, Brienza would abuse his power by giving her undesirable posts and showing open hostility.
“On more than one occasion, Captain Brienza threatened Ms. Roberts’ job by telling her that if she were to say anything about what he was doing to her, ‘she would be the one to get in trouble,’” the lawsuit alleges.
She finally reached her breaking point after Brienza allegedly raped her in the women’s locker room after a Yankees game in September 2021. According to the complaint, after that encounter Roberts “felt like she could no longer endure what was happening to her” and “feared that if she did not reach out to someone for help, her life could be on the line.”
In September 2021, she reported the alleged sexual assaults and misconduct to an inspector in the Internal Affairs Bureau.
On Nov. 30, 2021, she took an early retirement from the force, even though she said she would have liked to stay on the job longer.
Roberts is now seeking $35 million in damages. The case is under internal review according to the city’s Law Department.
Roberts’ attorney, Fred Lichtmacher, told Insider that he expects more women to come forward. He added that a “sexist” culture exists at the NYPD, which left his client with no choice but to leave the department.
“The NYPD has a policy, not stated but very much in effect, where they protect their royalty,” Lichtmacher said. “They circle their wagons where there is a complaint about a supervisor. You’re knocked down if you come out and say something about a supervisor. Gillian knew this and knew she had to leave.”
At present, Capt. Brienza continues to serve and is stationed at the 25th Precinct according to online databases.
