A former federal prosecutor in Puerto Rico filed a lawsuit against his ex-boss for allegedly treating him differently than women at the commonwealth’s U.S. Attorney office, the Suits & Sentences blog reported last week.
Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez (DOJ)
Ex-Assistant U.S. Attorney Juan E. Milanes alleges that acting U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez, a Bush holdover, retaliated against him when he complained about a “hostile work environment,” according to a court filing. Rodriguez-Velez allegedly treated Milanes differently than members of the “Girls Club,” an informal group of the U.S. Attorney’s office friends, the court document said.
D.C. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler summarized the allegations in an opinion below on her decision to transfer the case from the D.C. U.S. District Court to the Puerto Rico U.S. District Court. Milanes filed the lawsuit in D.C.
Plaintiff was assigned to the Narcotics Unit while in Puerto Rico, where his superior was the Unit’s Deputy Chief, Jeanette Mercado. Plaintiff alleges that Mercado created a hostile work environment. When Plaintiff complained about his work environment, Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, allegedly retaliated by denying Plaintiff’s children the benefit of having the Department pay for them to attend an English-language school in Puerto Rico, while still giving that benefit to her friends in a ‘Girls Club’ at the office. Plaintiff allegedly was further retaliated against when Mercado assigned him the oldest and weakest narcotics cases, threatened him with disciplinary action, and attempted to sabotage his trial work.
Milanes said he tried to leave the office to work on an assignment in Kosovo. But Rodriguez-Velez stopped him from leaving when she submitted a written reprimand on the day he was scheduled to leave, according to the court document. His overseas assignment was then retracted when Rodriguez-Velez accused Milanes of threatening her, the records said. The former Assistant U.S. Attorney was subsequently put on administrative leave and forced to resign in June 2008, according to the court filing.
Rodriguez-Velez was nominated by President Bush to be the U.S. Attorney for Puerto Rico in January 2007. She was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but was never voted on by the full Senate. She was criticized at the time for spearheading a politically-charged investigation into former Puerto Rico Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, a Democrat.
