A New York City police officer has filed an explosive lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court accusing a high-ranking department commander of subjecting her to relentless sexual harassment, graphic text messages, and a hostile work environment after she rejected his advances.
Officer Maria Delacruz, 33, alleges that Captain Amanjeet Sandhu transformed Transit District 1 on the Upper West Side into a hostile climate after taking command in January 2023. By March of that year, Sandhu began regularly assigning Delacruz to serve as his driver, according to court documents filed by attorney Eric Sanders.
Throughout 2023, Sandhu allegedly directed increasingly explicit comments toward Delacruz regarding her body, breasts, buttocks, and face. The suit states that Sandhu told her, “If I was your man, I would slap that ass all the time,” and would make crude remarks when she stood up to leave his office. He also allegedly suggested that she remove her bulletproof vest while staring at her and described dreams in which he was having sex with her.
Delacruz stated she was repulsed by the remarks and repeatedly told him to stop, but the behavior escalated. On one occasion, Delacruz reportedly opened the door to Sandhu’s office to find him wearing only white underwear and a tank top with his pants halfway down, and he allegedly urged her to come inside. In another incident in 2023, Sandhu instructed her to accompany him on a drive and attempted to kiss her against her wishes. Delacruz pushed him away, reminding him that he was married, to which Sandhu responded that he wanted her to regard him as a lover and would leave his wife for her.
The harassment allegedly continued outside the precinct. At the 2023 Patrol Borough Midtown South Christmas party at the Glen Island Harbour Club in New Rochelle, Sandhu grabbed Delacruz’s left arm, pulled her toward him, and insisted that she leave and sleep with him. Delacruz refused and attempted to leave with a friend, but Sandhu continued gripping her arm painfully.
By the summer of 2024, rumors regarding Delacruz and Sandhu had generated severe workplace hostility from other officers. The tension culminated in an incident in the women’s locker room, where Delacruz was half-naked when another female officer confronted her and accused her of sleeping with the captain.
Coworkers subsequently brought complaints about the rumored relationship to Deputy Chief Steven Mauriello at the Manhattan Transit Bureau. On July 17, 2024, Delacruz confronted Mauriello in his office about the rumors, asking why he was spreading them. According to the suit, Mauriello replied, “I’m not the only one saying that. Everyone here thinks that.”
Internal Affairs Bureau investigators subsequently interviewed Delacruz regarding the locker room dispute. Delacruz alleges that Mauriello pressured her to omit any mention of Sandhu’s sexual harassment, promising to secure her preferred transfer if she kept her statements limited to the locker room altercation. Delacruz accepted the transfer to the Manhattan North Patrol borough in Harlem without reporting the harassment to investigators at that time.
Despite transferring out of the precinct, the harassment persisted. In September 2024, Sandhu sent Delacruz a disappearing WhatsApp message containing a pornographic video, followed by messages inquiring about her personal sex life and asking how many dildos she owned. In late 2024, he sent her a photograph of a woman wearing a thong with her breasts exposed.
Sandhu, who was promoted to deputy inspector at the Transit Bureau Manhattan and earned $222,138 in 2025, did not respond to requests for comment. Mauriello also did not respond to messages seeking comment.
An NYPD spokesperson stated that the department had not yet been formally served with the lawsuit and would respond once it is received. The lawsuit names Sandhu, Mauriello, the police commissioner, and other defendants, seeking unspecified damages.
Delacruz, the mother of an 8-year-old son, stated that she hopes her legal action will encourage other female officers to report abuse and feel secure in speaking out within the department.
