A former nurse with the Burlington County Department of Corrections settled a suit for $25,000 with the department and her former employer after an officer allegedly assaulted her at work, court documents show.
Adria Rodriguez sued the Burlington County Corrections Department and contractor Corizon of New Jersey, LLC. in 2014, alleging that an officer had inappropriately touched her, and that her employers had failed to properly handle the incident, a suit and settlement documents obtained by open government advocate John Paff, who runs the blog NJ Civil Settlements, show.
Sometime after Rodriguez’s employment began in 2010, Officer Markey Hayes allegedly approached Rodriguez from behind at the County Correctional Center where she worked, picked her up and put her back down before grinding his pelvis into her. She told him to stop, the suit states.
Later, in March of 2012, Hayes approached Rodriguez again and she put her hands up, telling him she did not want to be touched, according to her claim.
Hayes then allegedly put his hands in her hair and brushed his pelvis against her hip.
Rodriguez then filed complaints to both the police and the Burlington County Detention Center, the suit states.
But after, retaliation against her followed. She was allegedly told she was “no longer trusted as a nurse” and experienced harassment from other officers, who said things like, “yo babe, I’m taking my clothes off for you, can you see me?”
After suffering a hostile work environment, Rodriguez’s claim said she experienced difficulty eating and sleeping, and eventually quit her job later that year.
The parties entered into mediation in April, and came to the $25,000 agreement in May.
Burlington County was responsible for $10,000 of the settlement amount, the documents show. The settlement is not an admission of guilt from Corizon or the county.