Bridgeport cop suspended over sex assault allegations

Sgt. Pasquale Feola, a 12-year veteran of the force, had been on paid administrative duty since October, 2013, after a Fairfield woman filed a complaint about his behavior after being pulled over for a traffic stop. less Sgt. Pasquale Feola, a 12-year veteran of the force, had been on paid administrative duty since October, 2013, after a Fairfield woman filed a complaint about his behavior after being pulled over for a traffic ... more Photo: File Photo / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: File Photo / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Bridgeport cop suspended over sex assault allegations 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

BRIDGEPORT — A city police sergeant has been suspended for six months without pay and reduced in rank to patrolman following an internal investigation of sex assault allegations.

Now Sgt. Pasquale Feola, a 12-year veteran, faces a federal civil lawsuit brought by the woman.

Feola had been on paid administrative duty since October 2013, after a Fairfield woman filed a complaint about his sexual behavior after she had been involved in a motor vehicle accident in August 2013.

Av Harris, spokesman for Mayor Joseph Ganim, confirmed the suspension Monday. Police sources said Feola, a decorated former K-9 cop, is under investigation by Fairfield police.

Fairfield police did not immediately comment on the allegations against Feola.

The alleged victim, identified only as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, said that after she was involved in the motor vehicle accident Feola failed to file an incident report and instead pressured her to have sex with him in exchange for not being arrested.

Feola, 45, was still on duty at the time, and Jane Doe says in the court filing that she had told the officer that she had been drunk when she struck another vehicle on Fairfield Avenue. She also told him that she’d already been charged twice with driving while intoxicated in earlier incidents and was terrified at the prospect of having to go to jail, according to the lawsuit.

The woman claims in the court filing that the Bridgeport officer told her that she was “lucky’’ he was handling the case. She said she “was made to feel that defendant Sergeant Feola required sexual favors from her in return for his willingness not to arrest her and to conceal the incident.’’

She is seeking compensation and punitive damages for anxiety, humiliation, emotional distress and embarrassment from both Feola and the city of Bridgeport.

Associate City Attorney Betsy Ingraham is representing Feola in the lawsuit.

While she has a motion pending to dismiss two of the counts in the lawsuit, she declined to comment on the case.

That’s because Ingraham said she is leaving the City Attorney’s office Friday after serving seven and a half years there. She is joining the Stamford law firm of Casper & DeToledo.

The lawsuit is pending before Senior U.S. District Judge Alfred Covello in Hartford. He has tentatively ordered it ready for trial in December 2016.

The suit claims Feola encouraged the woman to enter his cruiser and then drove her to his home in Easton.

There he left his Bridgeport cruiser and got into his private vehicle after the woman asked to be driven back to her Fairfield apartment, the lawsuit claims. On the way the woman performed a sex act on the officer and once back in her apartment the two allegedly had sex, according to the lawsuit.

Jane Doe claims in the suit that when she got out of her vehicle after the accident on Fairfield Avenue, she was slurring her speech, unsteady on her feet, confused and disoriented due to the effects of the alcohol.

She then drove to the nearby Stop & Shop Supermarket parking lot, and the driver of the other car also came there, where Feola was sitting in his cruiser. A witness tried to give information about the accident to the Bridgeport sergeant, but Feola would not take the statement, the woman alleges in her complaint.

The other driver left the parking lot a few minutes later, but Feola had not created a report about the crash or informed dispatchers that he had responded to the incident, gotten the other driver’s information, arranged for Doe’s damaged car to be towed or to arrest her or get her medical help, the court filing states.

Feola eventually brought the woman to her Fairfield apartment, while a second Bridgeport officer responded to the Stop & Shop lot after another person reported the accident.

Feola would have heard the second officer’s transmissions giving out Jane Doe’s marker plate number and describing his attempts to locate her, the lawsuit claims, without informing anyone that he was with her.

While the two were in the Fairfield apartment, Jane Doe received a call from her mother informing her thar Shelton police were at the mother’s house looking for Doe in connection with the accident.

Feola took the phone and briefly spoke to the Shelton officer but never informed Bridgeport that he was with Doe, the suit charges.

The lawsuit claims Feola’s actions were an abuse of his power and position of authority because the woman reasonably believed she was in police custody during the two incidents of sexual contact. It further claims that Feola failed to properly carry out his duties as a police officer by not investigating the accident or protecting the woman’s rights under the law.

Feola has not been charged with a crime. He has an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached for comment Monday.

Kevin Shea, the woman’s attorney, did not immediately return a reporter’s phone call seeking comment.

fjuliano@ctpost.com; @FrankJuliano