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: The Bergen Record -----Budinick's alleged misconduct includes allegations that while in public, he put his hand inside Bellino's uniform shirt, that he touched other female officers the same way, and that he repeatedly sought to have sex with Bellino, who is married to a captain in the county Corrections Department. 

: 
: WOMAN JOINS HARASSMENT SUIT AGAINST SHERIFF
: The Record (Bergen County, NJ); 2/16/1994; 
: PETER J. SAMPSON, Staff Writer

: 02-16-1994 

: A Bergen County woman has joined a lawsuit by a fellow sheriff's 
: officer that says they were victims of sexual harassment, 
: discrimination, and retaliation by Hudson County's top lawmen. 

: Rosemarie Bellino, 48, of North Arlington made the allegations in an amended lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Newark. 

: The suit says that Bellino, Rosemary Frank, 40, of Bayonne, and 
: other female officers assigned to courthouse security in Jersey City are subjected to a sexually hostile work environment by Hudson County Sheriff Edward J. Webster and Undersheriff Martin Budinick. 

: In addition to the two officials, the county and the Sheriff's 
: Department also are named defendants in the 27-page complaint. 

: Most of the alleged misconduct, which includes fondling the 
: plaintiffs, unrelenting demands for sexual relations, and retaliatory threats, was attributed to Budinick. 

: Webster is accused of tolerating or condoning the conduct of 
: Budinick and other unnamed superior officers by failing to do anything about it. 

: "Probably the most offensive thing involved in a case like this is you have people who are charged with enforcing the law, and here they are the worst offenders . . . taking away the rights of their own employees," said Hackensack attorney D. Gayle Loftis, who is  representing the women. 

: The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, as 
: well as court orders enjoining the defendants from engaging in unlawful employment practices and requiring the county to fire or discipline Budinick, or remove the two women from his supervision. 

: Contacted at his office Tuesday, Budinick confirmed that he was 
: served with the new complaint on Monday, but declined any comment. 

: Webster was on vacation and couldn't be reached. Hudson Counsel 
: Frank DeLeonardis did not return telephone calls to his office. 

: A spokesman for County Executive Robert Janisewski said he could 
: not comment on the suit. However, spokesman Jay Rosenfeld said that except for providing funding, the county executive has no authority over the sheriff, an elected official. 

: Frank, who filed the initial suit in October, has been a sheriff's officer since September 1985. For the past 12 months, she has been out of work on temporary disability related to the alleged harassment. Her doctor will not allow her to return until she is reassigned to a post in which she does not have to report to Budinick, "her primary harasser," or until Budinick leaves office, Loftis said. 

: Bellino, also a nine-year veteran of the department, decided to 
: join the litigation after Frank's suit was filed, Loftis said. 

: The suit alleges that actions and inaction by Budinick and Webster created an atmosphere in which sexual harassment and discrimination against women was allowed to flourish. 

: The suit said male officers have displayed sexually oriented 
: pictures, made gratuitous sexual remarks, had unsolicited and unwanted physical contact with female officers, and played recordings of their sexual activity for the benefit of other male officers. 

: Over a six-year period, Frank asked Budinick to transfer her to 
: another assignment, but all the requests were lost, destroyed, ignored, or "conditioned by Undersheriff Budinick upon the performance of a  sexual act upon" him, the suit said. 

: Webster allegedly failed to act after Frank reported that Budinick threatened to fire her if she continued to complain about his alleged harassment to the county's personnel department, the suit said. 

: Budinick's alleged misconduct includes allegations that while in 
: public, he put his hand inside Bellino's uniform shirt, that he touched other female officers the same way, and that he repeatedly sought to have sex with Bellino, who is married to a captain in the county Corrections Department. 

: Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY. POLICE. SEX. THREAT. LAWSUIT. USA. COURT 

: Copyright © 1994 Bergen Record Corp. All rights reserved. 



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