WOODBURY, NJ — A Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office detective accused the agency of creating a hostile work environment for women and the LGBTQ community, according to a lawsuit filed last month.
The complaint was brought by Det. Breia Renner, who sued the GCPO in March 2020 for sexual harassment. In the latest lawsuit, Renner claims that her employer has retaliated against her and diverted her away from detective duties since the parties reached a confidential settlement in late 2021.
Renner alleged that the GCPO suspended her for five days without pay after she asked her sergeant to review public information about an off-duty officer’s alleged assault at a Washington Township bar. Several colleagues also made inappropriate remarks about homosexuality and joked about the harassment outlined in her prior lawsuit, according to the complaint.
The plaintiff, who is openly gay, has been a GCPO detective since 2007.
“For years the GCPO has fostered an environment where improper conduct is ignored but complaints about misconduct result in a target on the back of the complainant,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit names the GCPO, the county government, Acting County Prosecutor Christine Hoffman, and GCPO Chief of Detectives Thomas Gilbert as defendants.
Gilbert, the GCPO’s spokesperson, declined comment on the lawsuit, as it’s pending litigation.
Removal From Chaplain Program
In 2020, the GCPO created a chaplain program that formed partnerships with faith-based leaders. Renner became the agency’s first chaplain coordinator, developing its policies and providing training.
Renner created a Facebook page for the program in early 2021, which was “well-received in the community,” the lawsuit says. The page routinely shared information on faith-based services, fallen officers, COVID-19 and posts from other law-enforcement agencies.
In March 2022, a coworker commented that Renner leading the chaplain program was like “the pot calling the kettle black,” suggesting it was improper for a gay individual to administer a program involving religious leaders, according to the lawsuit.
Renner reported the comment to her supervisor, who took no action, the complaint states. She was removed as program coordinator one day later without explanation.
The detective was replaced by a coworker who had been with the GCPO for less than a year and was not a member of the LGBTQ community, the complaint says.
Bar Incident
In early 2022, a retired police officer assaulted and sucker punched a man at a Washington Township bar, according to the lawsuit. The victim was “seriously injured and visibly bleeding at the scene,” according to the complaint.
Both the assailant and his wife — a member of the Monroe Township Police Department’s internal affairs department — were involved in the assault, the lawsuit says. They both refused to provide identifying information to responding officers, and the assailant’s wife was allowed to enter her vehicle despite appearing “extremely intoxicated,” the lawsuit says.
The GCPO has jurisdiction to investigate the conduct of the officers involved, who were not identified in the lawsuit.
A family member of the victim, who knew Renner, told the detective that the retired officer was not charged and that police at the scene told them they couldn’t press charges, the lawsuit says.
Renner wanted to verify the victim’s claims. So she asked her sergeant to access ProPhoenix — a computer database used by law enforcement that contains public information — to look up the incident.
Sgt. Anthony Garbarino accessed the program and confirmed that off-duty officers were involved in the incident, the lawsuit says. But after looking up the information, Garbarino had second thoughts and realized his login information would be linked to the inquiry, according to the complaint.
Garbarino reported the ProPhoenix lookup to Det. Brian Lloyd, of the GCPO’s Professional Standards Unit. He said that as soon as he realized fellow officers were involved in the incident, he terminated access to the database and told Renner that cops could “get in trouble for doing this,” the lawsuit says.
Lloyd told Garbarino to “cover his ass” by reporting the lookup and Renner’s role in the inquiry to Cpt. Stacie Lick, his supervisor, according to the lawsuit.
One month later, Renner soon learned that she was under criminal investigation for alleged misuse of the ProPhoenix database. Since the GCPO flagged the investigation as a conflict of interest for its own agency, state authorities assigned it to the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office.
During that time, the GCPO put Renner on “light duty,” which had solely been for officers returning to work from injury, the lawsuit says. Renner was prohibited from working overtime, taking new cases and appearing at crime scenes. She was tasked with creating business cards and flyers for GCPO events, according to the complaint.
In April 2022, Hoffman released a policy stating that light duty assignments weren’t made for disciplinary purposes. Nonetheless, Renner remained on light duty for that reason, the lawsuit says.
Cumberland County prosecutors finished investigating Renner one month later and declined to pursue criminal charges. Despite this, she received a five-day unpaid suspension for a lack of candor.”
Her colleague who submitted the ProPhoenix inquiry was merely reprimanded, despite the investigation finding that he wasn’t truthful in his reasons for the lookup, the lawsuit says. He has since been promoted.
Renner requested a disciplinary hearing. But before the hearing or any finding of guilt, Lick indicated that her lack of candor met the standard for Brady-Giglio designation, the complaint says. Officers are typically given Brady-Giglio status if they have a credibility issue that could affect their testimony. The designation can be “devastating” to an officer’s career, the lawsuit says.
The county’s self-selected hearing officer sustained the charges against Renner in a February 2023 departmental hearing, the complaint states. The decision is currently on appeal.
Continued Harassment, Retaliation
A few months after the sexual-harassment lawsuit was settled, several GCPO personnel joked about the harassment that Renner and her wife faced, the complaint says.
In April 2022, Gilbert approached Renner at the office and mentioned a news article about former County Prosecutor Charles Fiore. He joked that Fiore “must have turned a cheek at that time” and then lifted his leg up and turned his backside toward Renner, according to the lawsuit. Another detective repeated the same joke and actions and then left the office when he realized Renner was present.
In the prior lawsuit, Renner claimed that Fiore’s wife humped Renner’s wife during a golf outing and that Fiore’s wife pinched Renner’s rear end.
Renner filed a complaint with the county prosecutor about Gilbert’s behavior, which the state attorney general’s office investigated. The attorney general recommended retraining for “certain members” of the GCPO. It’s believed that the GCPO disciplined or retrained Gilbert, the lawsuit says.
Several weeks after the investigation into Gilbert ended, he reassigned Renner to light duty. Once again, the detective was pushed into clerical work and could not earn overtime, the lawsuit says.
The harassment continued last December, when two female interns told Renner that an agent made inappropriate comments toward them, the complaint states. The agent had asked the interns if they were “together” and motioned his hands like scissors, implying a lesbian sexual act, according to the lawsuit.
“The interns complained to Plaintiff (Renner) because the environment at GCPO is hostile toward women and homosexuals and the interns did not feel comfortable reporting the conduct to supervisors,” the lawsuit says.
Renner reported the interns’ complaint to her supervisor, hoping that an internal-affairs investigation would ensue. But in January, she learned that Hoffman didn’t want to pursue an investigation and diverted the incident to human resources, according to the complaint.
The plaintiff is seeking punitive and compensatory damages, along with back pay, attorneys’ fees and the cost of the lawsuit.
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