Sergio Bichao

@sbichao

Sheriff's Office investigator Nelli Arcaro says she was sexually harassed by a supervisor.

Arcaro's lawsuit is one of several pending against the sheriff's office.

Previous lawsuits against the sheriff's office have resulted in more than $2.5M in settlements.

NEW BRUNSWICK – The Middlesex County Sheriff's Office, which already has paid out more than $2.5 million to settle sexual and racial harassment lawsuits by eight female employees in the past four years, is battling another lawsuit by a female worker alleging a hostile work environment.

Nelli Arcaro, a Monroe resident who was hired as a Sheriff's Office investigator in 1994, says she was sexually harassed more than 50 times by a supervisor "almost every time he saw her between 2007 and 2012."

Arcaro says in her 2012 Superior Court lawsuit that Capt. Kevin Chaney repeatedly would ask her to perform oral sex on him in the office, that he once blocked her from leaving after she rejected his request for oral sex, and that he once rubbed the zipper of her jeans with his hand.

When Arcaro complained about his behavior to another supervisor, Director Tom Farrell, he laughed it off and gave Chaney the nickname "B.J.," which stood for a vulgar euphemism for an oral sex act, Arcaro's lawsuit claims.

While the Sheriff's Office punished Farrell and another supervisor, both of whom reportedly had extramarital affairs with Arcaro, the office's internal affairs unit never found fault with Chaney or recommended discipline for him as a result of Arcaro's complaints, according to court documents obtained exclusively by MyCentralJersey.com and the Home News Tribune.

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While Sheriff Mildred "Millie" Scott succeeded in having Judge Hany Mawla in October remove her from the lawsuit as an individual defendant, which could have made her personally financially responsible if the lawsuit was successful, both Scott's office and the county remain defendants in the case as it heads to trial next month in Somerville.

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The Arcaro litigation is among several lawsuits targeting Scott and an embattled Sheriff's Office still reeling after the 30-year reign of former sheriff Joseph Spicuzzo. The former Democratic power broker was arrested in 2010 and sentenced last year to nine years in prison for taking bribes in exchange for hiring and promoting sheriff's officers and investigators.

Several employees who were implicated in the scheme and subsequently fired by Scott are now suing, alleging Scott violated their rights and selectively reprimanded employees.

Arcaro's lawsuit follows several other similar complaints alleging a hostile work environment in this office. Those suits ended in costly settlements.

In 2010, the county paid $1.59 million to settle two former female sheriff's officers' lawsuit alleging years of sexual propositions and lewd behavior by male coworkers under Spicuzzo's watch.

Also in 2010, the county paid $850,000 to settle a 2004 sexual harassment lawsuit by five other female officers against Spicuzzo's office.

In 2011, the county paid $75,000 to a black female sheriff's office clerk who in 2001 alleged racial and verbal harassment by a coworker.

Arcaro's attorney, Paul Castronovo of Castronovo & McKinney in Morristown, declined to comment about the case when reached Tuesday.

Scott also declined to talk about the case, but in arguments summarized in court documents she blames Arcaro for not reporting the harassment until 2012 — and only after Scott ordered her to under threat of being charged with insubordination.

Scott argued that Arcaro was reluctant to report the harassment to top officials because she was having extramarital affairs with Farrell and Lt. Eric DeProssimo, according to the court documents.

Arcaro admitting having a sexual affair with DeProssimo from March or April to August 2012, according to a summary of the case with Mawla's October order, and she admitted to receiving preferential treatment as a result of the relationship, which ended when DeProssimo reported it to Scott and requested a job transfer on Aug. 30, 2012.

Scott said she told Arcaro to seek counseling after hearing about the affair and sexual harassment and said she ordered the internal investigation of Chaney, DeProssimo and Farrell.

The county argues that Arcaro was not fired, demoted or reprimanded for reporting her allegations.

Arcaro argues that the investigations were biased and flawed because they required that she corroborate her allegations while accepting other witnesses' claims as truth.

Mawla in October denied the county's attempt to dismiss the suit because he believes that a jury should decide whether the county took adequate action or aided the harassment and whether Arcaro should be entitled to punitive damages.

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Staff Writer Sergio Bichao: 908-243-6615; sbichao@mycentraljersey.com