WATERTOWN â Nearly one year after a Watertown womanâs first lawsuit was dismissed, a federal lawsuit has been filed seeking damages for what she alleges was an unlawful arrest nearly four years ago.
DeAnna LeTray, through the New York Civil Liberties Union, filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court, Syracuse, against Jefferson County; the city of Watertown; Jefferson County Sheriff Colleen OâNeill; Watertown police officers George Cummings, Samuel White and Virginia Kelly; Metro-Jefferson Public Safety Building Administrator Kristopher M. Spencer; county corrections officer Joel Dettmer; Watertown Police Chief Charles P. Donoghue; and four John Does.
Ms. LeTray, a 54-year-old transgender woman, first filed suit in state Supreme Court in Jefferson County more than two years ago seeking to have the state Division of Human Rights investigate her alleged claims of unlawful treatment by Watertown police at the public safety building.
While Mayor de Blasio publicly supports disclosure of police disciplinary records, lawyers with the Special Federal Litigation unit in the city Corporation Counsel’s office have continued to demand blanket non-disclosure agreements on the same documents in federal court.
How the ADL’s Israel Advocacy Undermines Its Civil Rights Work
This report will appear in our Spring 2021 issue. Subscribe now to get a copy in your mailbox.
IN THE SUMMER OF 2016, a handful of senior Anti-Defamation League (ADL) staff members and executives in New York and Washington, DC joined a conference call to discuss a sensitive topic: the organization’s position on what would come to be known as the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. The bill would amend federal civil rights law to employ a controversial definition of antisemitism, which included “delegitimiz[ing]” Israel, blaming Israel for “all . . . political tensions,” and, in the case of international organizations, “focusing on Israel only for peace or human rights investigations.” Those guilty of antisemitism under this definition could be investigated by the Department of Education for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964.