Parks supervisor made officers ‘offer up’ wives for promotions: suit
State Parks police officers working under a Long Island boss allegedly had to “offer up” their wives to him to get promoted, according to a lawsuit.
Joseph S. Reyes, a high-ranking supervisor in the state Parks Long Island regional office, shagged one officer’s wife and told the underling he had an “inside track” on a better position, which he got, because of the affair, a worker claims in court papers.
“Another officer who was up for the same promotion was told he would have gotten it if he had offered his wife to Reyes,” according to the Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit.
The married Reyes, 56, was a rage-filled, steroid-using horndog, charges Laurie Beni, a civilian employee of the Parks Police who accuses Reyes of subjecting her to years of frightening harassment.
Reyes denied the allegations. Parks Police immediately put him on modified duty when the accusations came to light, a spokesman said.
Reyes allegedly slathered Beni in lotion while she worked in the office, and in another incident sent their coworkers home before locking her in a room with a massage table and trying to remove her bra, she claims.
He allegedly repeatedly threatened to write her up when she refused his advances, she said in the legal filing.
He told Beni he “was the king” and she “was the servant,” adding, “You are to obey me. If you’re not on the same page, your head is going to roll,” according to the lawsuit.
Beni, who called Reyes’ Suffolk County office her “personal torture chamber,” begged coworkers to interrupt if they saw her in there with him.
“Sorry, you’re on your own. If we do that, he will cut our hours again!” they told her.
She once saw Reyes tear an officer’s Stetson hat to shreds with his bare hands, claims Beni, adding that a mix of steroids and diet pills made Reyes “unpredictable and violent.”
“She was afraid of him,” said Beni’s lawyer, Kristopher Dennis.
When allegations against Reyes surfaced, Parks Department bosses let Reyes retire early in June 2016 with full benefits, the attorney charged. Reyes raked in nearly a $132,000 in salary in 2015, according to SeeThroughNY.
“Basically he received no punishment,” Dennis said.
Beni is suing Reyes, the state and the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for unspecified damages.
State Parks said it has “zero tolerance for sexual harassment,” and continued investigating Reyes even after he retired, eventually referring the case to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, which declined comment.
“All of the defendants are responsible for [Beni] being just another #metoo,” she said in the lawsuit.