Female Gardeners Accuse Riverside Park Conservancy Of Harassment

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Lakisha Johnson began working as a gardener for the Riverside Park Conservancy in April 2017. She said harassment from male colleagues started almost immediately.

"The colleagues propositioned her for sex, spread sexual rumors about her, locked her in a bathroom and forced her to say 'I love you' in order to be released, and sang songs with sexually suggestive lyrics to her," reads a lawsuit filed on June 10, 2020, against the Riverside Park Conservancy and Lynda Tower — the Vice President of Operations at the nonprofit.

The suit from Johnson, who is a Black woman, goes on to allege disability discrimination, race discrimination, gender-based discrimination and retaliation on the part of Riverside Park Conservancy.

A year and a half before Johnson began working for the conservancy, the then 24-year-old Breeana George had her first day as a gardener at the nonprofit.

Similar to Johnson, whose suit was settled in 2020, George alleged the inappropriate contact and harassment from other male Conservancy colleagues started almost immediately.

In her own lawsuit, filed in November 2020 and ongoing, George describes how her supervisor "would always find excuses to touch" her and said that other Riverside Park Conservancy landscapers made repeated sexual advances toward her.

George also describes a moment when her supervisor at the Conservancy made derogatory comments about people from the Dominican Republic and other people of color within the park.

"He said that a certain area of Riverside Park was 'trashy' because Dominicans were still acting like they were in their home country," the supervisor said, according to George.

"He said that 'undesirables' living in Harlem were to blame for the deteriorating condition of North Park and the '10 mile' area of the Park."

The Riverside Park Conservancy gave the supervisor a warning when George filed her first complaint against him and, when she complained a second time, the Conservancy demoted the male employee and moved him to a different part of the park, according to a person familiar with the situation.

That former supervisor no longer works at the Conservancy, the source said.

While George filed her lawsuit last year, she first filed a complaint with the NYC Human Rights Commission in the spring of 2017 regarding her alleged treatment working at the Conservancy. She withdrew this complaint in the fall of 2020 and filed a case in court in November.

"Riverside Park Conservancy has ratified a hostile work environment against Plaintiff because of her sex by: (1) Defendant’s repeated failure to address and remedy sexual harassment of Plaintiff, her co-workers and others working alongside them in the Park; (2) allowing sexual rumors about Plaintiff and other women to negatively affect their professional standing; (3) perpetuating a sexist work culture that objectifies women and views them as less capable than men, and (4) tolerating and endorsing this heightening hostile work environment, thereby constructively discharging Plaintiff," reads George's suit.

The Riverside Park Conservancy issued a statement to Patch when asked about the lawsuits.

“Ms. George’s claims are without merit," it read. "The fact is that the Conservancy did everything in its power to help Ms. George succeed when she was employed there. It is unfortunate that lawyers for Ms. George, after years of pursuing a frivolous lawsuit, are now engaged in a PR campaign trying to besmirch the reputation of a community-based nonprofit in order to get a payout. The Conservancy, which employs many women at all levels of leadership and staff, is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment.”

Both George and Johnson no longer work at the Conservancy.

The Riverside Park Conservancy strongly denied both women's allegations of harassment in the workplace. The organization did settle with Johnson in November 2020 for an undisclosed amount of money.

"Defendants respectfully submit that Plaintiff’s potpourri of race discrimination, gender discrimination, disability discrimination, and retaliation claims are each utterly meritless," attorney's representing the Riverside Park Conservancy wrote in a court memo about Johnson's allegations.

"As to her hodgepodge of discrimination claims against Defendants, Plaintiff is unable to state even a prima facie case."

Here's how the attorneys for the Conservancy responded to George's allegations:

"RPC denies that Plaintiff was subjected to a hostile work environment, gender discrimination, or retaliation of any kind. The few alleged incidents that Plaintiff reported to RPC under its sexual harassment policy were addressed promptly and proportionately; RPC managers took Plaintiff’s concerns seriously, met with her to address those concerns, and where appropriate, disciplined Plaintiff’s co-workers.”