FALL RIVER - A former Bristol County Sheriff's Department dispatcher and social worker was awarded more than $75,000 for back wages and emotional distress from years of discrimination and sexual harassment she said she suffered at the hands of a trainer employed from the Sheriff's Department.
Attorney Christopher Trundy said his client, Lori Gonsalves, of Fairhaven, started at the Sheriff's Department right out of college as an entry-level dispatcher with dreams of a future in law enforcement but was immediately subjected to sexual comments and propositions by her training officer, then-Lt. Edward Raposa and others.
Gonsalves was employed at the Sheriff's Department from September 1997 to May 2001.
"From the second day of her employment to her last day in May 2001, Raposa came on to her from the get-go, contacting her during work time to engage in a sexual relationship with him," said Trundy. "Raposa had a thing for her and for nurses and he told her to dress up like a nurse so he could have sex with her."
Trundy said Gonsalves reported each incident to the department's chief of staff at the time, Edward Talbot, as well as others in the Sheriff's Department, but said nothing was done.
"To this day, Raposa has never been disciplined for what he did, even though it was proven that he lied during the investigation," said Trundy.
After being deadlocked halfway through its 18-hour, three-day deliberations, the jury awarded Gonsalves $61,700 in back wages and $15,000 for emotional distress.
Trundy said punitive damages award could have been awarded if the jury had found evil motive on the part of Raposa or others, but it did not.
Bristol County Sheriff's Department attorney Bruce Assad said the reason there were no punitive damages awarded to Gonsalves was because the jury found that the Sheriff's Department did nothing wrong.
"In Massachusetts, the way the law reads is that in liability cases, a supervisor, no matter how low or how they are ranked, the employer is automatically liable for the conduct of that supervisor," said Assad. "The jury found that the supervisor did harass a co-worker, but there was no blame on the Sheriff's Department.
"The department held a full-scale investigation, which included 23 witnesses, and not one of them corroborated her story," said Assad. "In fact, there were many that contradicted her story. Eleven testified at trial, some that were retired on behalf of the Sheriff's Department, and not one corroborated her complaints."
Trundy said Gonsalves would later enter into a consentual relationship with Correction Officer James Almond for a five-to-six-month period - a relationship he said ended badly.
In a training class Gonsalves attended, Trundy said Raposa, who was promoted to captain, ridiculed Gonsalves in front of the class on why relationships within the Sheriff's Department should not be allowed.
"Here's a guy holding her up and ridiculing her to the class about dating someone from the department, when behind the scenes he continues to proposition her for sex," said Trundy. "And this guy was the sexual harassment training officer."
But at that same training session, Assad said there were two women, one on each side of Gonsalves during the five-day training period, who said what Gonsalves complained of never happened.
At the trial, Raposa told the jury he considered himself very politically connected, Trundy said, and due to his association with then-state Rep. Edward M. Lambert, he was able to jump over 3,500 applicants to get his job at the Sheriff's Department in 1990 under then-Sheriff David Nelson.
"Apparently there are certain people inside the Sheriff's Department that are considered untouchable, people that are so powerful they can say and do anything they want," said Trundy. "This case was never about the money. How can you repay 10 years of a person's life that is lost? Or the death of a dream of a career? She didn't want to work anywhere else."
Trundy said there is another pending case against Raposa involving Gonsalves.
Assad said they are "looking into an appeal" on the judgment due to the "numerous inconsistencies in her statement from an earlier date and what she said at court."
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