SARANAC LAKE — A female Saranac Lake Police officer is suing the department, the village and the former police chief in federal court for alleged sexual harassment and retaliation from 2021 to 2023.

Officer Gabrielle “Gabby” Buckley, formerly Gabby Beebe, is alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the state Human Rights Law. The lawsuit, brought by law firm Harding Mazzotti, claims the department leadership created a “hostile work environment” with a “boys club atmosphere” including sexually derogatory nicknames and comments. When another officer filed a complaint about these alleged violations, which Buckley testified in, the lawsuit says she faced stalking, breaches of her personal information and retaliation by the village.

Last year, the state Division of Human Rights found “probable cause” to support Buckley’s claims. Her attorneys got this state complaint dismissed to pursue the case in federal court. The lawsuit, filed on Oct. 29 in the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of New York, demands a trial by jury.

The attorneys for the village, department and former chief, Albany-based Napierski, VanDenburgh, Napierski and O’Connor LLP, requested that the case be dismissed last week, on the grounds that the claims in the lawsuit are outside of the statute of limitations.

The letter from the attorneys states that the withdrawal of the complaint to the SDHR to pursue the matter in court makes the claims subject to the state’s statute of limitations, which begins at the date of the alleged discrimination.

“At the time the plaintiff filed her SDHR complaint in 2022, the limitations period was three years from the alleged discriminatory act,” the letter states.

All parties involved in the case deferred comment to their attorneys. The attorneys in the case declined to comment.

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The case

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Buckley was hired in 2020. At the time, the village did not have an anti-discrimination or sexual harassment policy. The village adopted one in October of that year. She alleges that the village has not enforced that policy, though.

Around a year after she was hired, the lawsuit alleges Sgt. Travis LaBar and Chief Wenske started referring to Officer Aaron Sharlow by the nickname “Taco” and to Officer William Flynn by the nickname “Bell.” Buckley learned from Sharlow that these were sexual references relating to the officers and her.

“‘Taco’ was a sexual reference to performing oral sex on Plaintiff’s vagina, and ‘Bell’ referred to ‘ringing Plaintiff’s bell’ (understood by the officers to mean having sex with the Plaintiff),” the lawsuit states.

“The behavior was unwelcome to her,” the lawsuit adds.

Some of the alleged sexual harassment was more direct, such as an allegation of Sgt. Jason Swain asking Sharlow, “When you going to f*** Beebe?”

Another case mentioned involved LaBar having Buckley take a breathalyzer test 24 hours after she had consumed alcohol the previous evening. She had gone to the bathroom during a meeting and the test was said to gauge her “fitness for duty.”

“The breathalyzer test was humiliating and was conducted for the purpose of harassing Plaintiff based on her sex,” the lawsuit alleges.

In November 2021, an independent investigation conducted by the law firm Roemer Wallens Gold and Mineaux LLP concluded that both LaBar and Wenske violated the village’s anti-discrimination and harassment policy, citing “probable cause.”

The lawsuit alleges these findings were never acted on by the village. It says Wenske and LaBar were “only” issued counseling memorandums and that LaBar’s was never placed in his file. It also says that Wenske never “faced meaningful discipline” before he retired at the end of 2021.

In 2022, the lawsuit says a former village trustee told her “that although the village knew defendant Wenske’s conduct was inappropriate and the investigation findings were substantiated, they allowed him to retire instead of taking disciplinary action.” The lawsuit says this conversation was captured on her body camera and she requested the footage from the village.

The lawsuit says the village is liable for negligence to prevent and correct harassment, claims the village “failed to protect” Buckley and that it “tolerated” the harassment.

In August 2021, the lawsuit says Buckley was exposed to heroin laced with fentanyl during a field test. It says she got dizzy and lost consciousness and that medical assistance was not called for for 40 minutes.

“LaBar dismissed Plaintiff’s complaints of feeling suddenly ill due to Plaintiff’s gender,” the lawsuit alleges.

She was given two doses of Narcan, transported to Adirondack Medical Center and experienced a seizure en route, the lawsuit says. It says the next day, LaBar texted her “don’t make me regret it,” which she believes references him using Narcan on her.

Ten days later, Sgt. Reyanin Brown filed a complaint with the village about Wenske and LaBar about conduct toward herself and Buckley. Buckley initially declined to participate in the investigation, but was ordered to be a witness by the now-former village manager, according to the lawsuit.

After providing a testimony for the investigation, the lawsuit alleges Buckley faced an “aggressive campaign of retaliation” from her superiors including stalking, threatening statements and isolation.

The lawsuit claims Wenske texted officers telling them not to speak to her because she was “playing” them. It claims LaBar drove by her residence during her off-duty hours and commented on her whereabouts to her, and also followed her to the hospital while she was off-duty. It says he told her “There are eyes and ears everywhere.”

The lawsuit also alleges Buckley was denied training opportunities in retaliation.

When Buckley and Sharlow placed a stink bomb in the station for a prank, it says she faced harsher discipline than he did, though they were both involved.

In January 2023, the lawsuit says the village provided a Saranac Lake resident who had stalked Buckley with her full name and her social security number. She only learned about it 10 months later while Brown was watching bodycam footage of the resident talking to officers and she overheard him tell them “the village … even gave me her social security number.” She said they both were shocked.

The resident had FOILed her personnel file and they never redacted her SSN. The lawsuit alleges this was done intentionally and knowingly in retaliation.

When she went to Chief Perrotte about the breach of her personal information, Perrotte told her “I thought they (the village) told you.”

When she went to the village clerk, the clerk told her the village did not need to notify her of the breach.

Everyone involved, except for Wenske are all still members of the SLPD.

The lawsuit orders the village to implement effective policies to prevent this from happening in the future.

The case before U.S. District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino is still in it’s early stages. The Enterprise will keep updated on this case as more documents are filed with the court.