A police officer in Aberdeen has sued her department, alleging she has been harassed, passed over for promotions and discriminated against for years because of her military background and gender.
In a lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Monmouth County, Jessica McDougall Marr alleges her superiors and fellow officers have subjected her to “a strong culture of misogyny and anti-military bias” as well as a consistently hostile work environment.
The suit names the police department, the township and the township manager Bryan Russell as defendants.
“She’s so well respected within the military for her service that it’s really even more outrageous and harmful that the police department treats her like she’s incapable and incompetent solely because she’s a woman,” her Chatham-based attorney Gina Mendola Longarzo said by phone Monday. “She should have been promoted on several different occasions. If you line her up against anyone who has been promoted her accomplishments outshine them all. She’s been held back and it’s really unfair.”
Russell said in an email that the township has yet to be served with the suit and declined to comment.
Neither Aberdeen police Chief Matthew Lloyd nor Capt. Craig Hasumann are named as defendants, though both are mentioned prominently in an array of allegations made by Marr in the lawsuit. Neither could be reached by NJ Advance Media on Monday.
Aberdeen…
