By Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — The city has settled a federal discrimination lawsuit filed by a group of nursing NYPD moms who claim that the department didn’t provide them with clean, safe spaces to express breast milk — then punished them when they complained, the Daily News has learned.
NYPD Officers Simone Teagle — who blew the whistle on the department’s treatment of nursing mothers — Elizabeth Ortiz, Melissa Soto-Germosen and Theresa Mahon will each receive between $30,000 and $75,000 now that the case was settled on Jan. 30 , their attorney Eric Sanders confirmed.
The lawsuit, which sparked a federal probe into the department’s treatment of nursing moms, was filed in 2018.
“This settlement remains a major victory for NYPD mothers and workplace equality,” Sanders said. “We commend the courage of the plaintiffs who took a stand not just for themselves, but for all past, current, and future nursing mothers in the NYPD.”
The treatment of NYPD nursing mothers came to light after Teagle claimed her superiors at the 113th Precinct in Jamaica , Queens refused to provide her with the time and a clean space to pump, in violation of department policy and state and federal law, according to court papers. When Teagle complained about the conditions she was transferred, she said.
A month later, Teagle, along with Mahon, Soto-Germosen, Ortiz and another officer, Vivian Ayende , filed discrimination complaints against the NYPD , claiming they were forced to pump breast milk in locker rooms, cars or bathrooms.
The women alleged the department’s lack of sanitary pumping places caused several of them to develop mastitis, an inflammation of breast tissue that sometimes involves an infection. Some said they were put on “punishment posts” for asking for time to pump breast milk and were routinely forced to pump milk during their lunch break, the lawsuit claimed.
Because there was no designated space, other cops would walk in on the nursing moms while they pumped breast milk. Since there wasn’t a private space to store the milk, it could be grabbed by anyone in the stationhouse, they claimed.
In one incident, a male cop at Harlem’s 32nd Precinct dared a male detective to drink the express milk a sergeant had just pumped. The detective accepted the dare and gulped down the milk meant for the sergeant’s child, according to court papers.
NYPD policy states each precinct must provide “a private room or an office for employees to express breast milk.” The room should “provide an employee with the requisite privacy” and cannot be a bathroom.
The case generated interest from nursing moms in other city and state agencies, but the case was never made into a class-action lawsuit, Sanders said. As the case wended its way through Brooklyn federal court, Ayende dropped out of the suit, forfeiting any settlement awards.
Once the lawsuit was filed, the NYPD revised its lactation policy and began purchasing pumping pods to provide clean and safe spaces for nursing mothers.
In November 2018 , a new law went into effect requiring the Police Department to provide employees with lactation rooms close to where they work and a refrigerator “suitable for breast milk storage.”
The city Law Department confirmed the settlement. A city source said the settlement was “in the best interest of all parties.”
Emails to the NYPD on the settlement was not immediately returned.
“No woman should have to choose between her career and her right to breast feed, and this case sends a clear message: Employers must uphold the rights and dignity of their employees,” Sanders said.
—
©2025 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.