NJ Transit bus drivers sue over serial masturbator, demanding audit and reforms – NJ.com

Six female bus drivers have sued NJ Transit, contending the agency did nothing to address complaints about a serial masturbator on their buses and demanded an outside review and overhaul of how the police and administration handle such incidents.

The lawsuit, filed May 25 in Essex County by six drivers who work in the Washington Township, Gloucester County garage, contends their repeated reports and complaints to supervisors were ignored and, in some cases, the women were retaliated against for reporting incidents. They also contend the transit agency allowed them to be sexually harassed and didn’t allow them to bar the alleged culprit from getting on board.

The bus drivers also contend that they were discriminated against because of their gender, saying complaints were dismissed with comments by a garage supervisor such as “you’re a mother, haven’t you seen a penis before,” the lawsuit says. The female bus drivers said they were told they could not refuse to allow the man to get on their bus, despite numerous complaints and reports about his lewd behavior.

The suit demands an outside auditor be hired to audit and recommend policy changes about how NJ Transit and its police department responds to sexual and racial discrimination and harassment complaints. The suit demands that those policy recommendations be accepted and implemented. The drivers who filed suit are African American, court documents said.

NJ Transit officials, through a spokesman, declined to respond to the suit because it is pending litigation.

In the lawsuit, the drivers contend NJ Transit did nothing to prevent or stop the workplace sexual harassment, didn’t investigate drivers’ complaints and retaliated against drivers who continued to report the problem.

The incidents started in 2019 when a male passenger, identified as “S.G.” in the complaint, got on a bus driven by a Black bus driver from the Washington Township bus garage and allegedly masturbated “on the bus, in front of the bus operator.”

She reported the incident verbally and in writing to supervisor at the bus garage, to bus control and to NJ Transit police, but those complaints were ignored, the suit said.

The incidents happened on buses driven by other Black women through 2020. In August 2020, police cited S.G. for lewd behavior and encouraged employees to call police if they encountered him again, in an advisory. The agency did not give bus drivers the power to refuse to let S.G. ride the bus. The incidents continued in to 2022, the complaint said.

One driver refused to let S.G. on her bus and said in court papers that she was told by police they couldn’t arrest S.G. unless a child was present or he touched one of the drivers. The drivers were repeatedly told NJ Transit was “trying to build a case” against S.G. when they reported incidents.

The suit also contends NJ Transit did not investigate after a passenger posted a video of S.G. masturbating on a bus in August 2021 on the agency’s Facebook page. S.G. pleaded guilty in November 2021 to lewd behavior and as a condition of that plea, was barred from having any contact with NJ Transit bus drivers, which was detailed in a draft April 2022 advisory to drivers that was never posted or circulated to drivers, the suit said.

The suit comes as NJ Transit has touted reforms such as implementing new harassment and discrimination training for employees and reducing a backlog of complaints waiting from past years to be to be investigated. But it also comes after the agency paid $3.2 million in January to settle racial discrimination and retaliation lawsuits brought by two employees, including a woman who successfully sued the agency for racial discrimination in 2014.

The attorney in that case, Nancy Erika Smith, had testified in 2016 during a 2016 Joint Legislative Oversight Committee hearing about NJ Transit, saying that a plaintiff’s request that the agency change the system to end discrimination and harassment went nowhere.

In August 2022, NJ Transit HR officials detailed enhanced training covering topics including preventing discrimination and harassment, avoidance of retaliation, diversity, inclusion, sensitivity, workplace violence prevention, unconscious bias, and creating a positive work environment.

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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com.