Here’s how a Boston police lieutenant detective says she was targeted due to her gender

The City of Boston is facing a lawsuit from one of its own, Boston police Lieutenant Det. Donna Gavin, who alleges her career was upended by a hostile boss who discriminated against her due to her gender.

Jurors heard opening statements on Wednesday in the case Gavin filed in Boston federal court, where her attorney painted a picture of retaliation against Gavin, who is considered a national expert on human sex trafficking, according to The Boston Globe.

“She is someone who gave her life to the Boston Police Department in trying to help women and children who are victims of crime,” Nicholas Carter, an attorney representing Gavin, told the jury in opening statements.

Gavin’s lawsuit names both the city and her former supervisor, Captain Det. Mark Hayes, as defendants.

But city attorney Nieve Anjomi offered that Gavin expected special treatment and mistreated her subordinates.

“The evidence you are going to hear is about Donna Gavin’s sense of entitlement, which is easy when the mayor is just a phone call away,” Nieve Anjomi told jurors. “What you are going to learn is that the rules that applied to everybody else in the department did not apply to Gavin.”

Here’s what’s been said so far about the case:

What Donna Gavin alleges happened

A 35-year department veteran, Gavin was selected by then-Mayor Marty Walsh to helm a newly combined unit to crack down on human trafficking and crimes against children in the city in 2016.

In court, Carter said not long after Gavin received the position, Hayes launched “a secret campaign against her because she was a female supervisor on the rise,” the Globe reports.

According to Carter, Gavin was treated differently by Hayes than her male colleagues: He audited her cases in secret, kept a “secret log” regarding her, ordered personnel changes in units she oversaw, and instructed her subordinates to not tell her about cases they were working on with the FBI.

Gavin was also ordered to work in a cubicle while the rest of the force’s lieutenant detectives all had private offices, Carter told jurors.

Testifying on Wednesday, Gavin said her assignment to a cubicle surprised her at the time, adding that she was unable to have privacy for conversations and meetings.

“A couple of detectives commented to me that people joked about it, that it was disrespectful,” she said.

Gavin also said she asked for more diversity among the personnel in the unit, especially people of color and women, but she was assigned a white male detective.

Within his first month on the job, that detective’s actions made a victim cry and become angry during a police interview, she said.

The victim told her the detective “basically blamed her” for being involved in sex work and told her, “You knew what you were getting into,” Gavin testified.

In 2017, Gavin filed a complaint against Hayes and was subsequently moved to the police academy (she currently oversees the exam grading process), while Hayes was transferred to an upgraded position at headquarters, the Globe reports.

What the city and Hayes allege happened

Attorneys for the city and Hayes claim it is Gavin who acted out of line.

Anjomi told the jury he intends to show how Gavin allegedly mistreated her subordinates, at one point contacting Walsh’s cousin and driver, Winifred Cotter, to prevent the transfer of two of her friends out of the unit to make way for two Black detectives, according to the Globe.

Cotter was a sergeant detective at the time and now serves as a superintendent. Walsh contacted the police commissioner, but the transfers were already approved, Anjomi said.

Evan Ouellette, Hayes’ attorney, said his client — a U.S. Air Force veteran and member of the department since 1985 — was “very transparent” regarding raising concerns and issues about how Gavin supervised her unit and whether she was following department directives.

Ouellette described Hayes as “very blunt” and as someone who “doesn’t mince words,” the Globe reports.

He also denied that Hayes discriminated against Gavin, noting the two worked together for six years with “no significant issues” prior to when she was a sergeant detective in charge of the human trafficking unit, according to the newspaper.

But Ouellette said conflict arose between the two when Gavin made the call to Cotter, because Hayes believed Gavin “attempted to use her political connections” to overrule his call to bring in the two detectives.

Hayes became critical of Gavin and attempted to have her reassigned as he reviewed her work and reports from her subordinates, Ouellette told jurors.

“His criticism of her was not motivated by her gender,” Ouellette said. “It was motivated by legitimate concerns he had about Gavin’s conduct.”

In the lawsuit, Gavin alleges Hayes and the city of gender discrimination, creating a hostile work environment, and retaliation.

Editor’s note: Although they share a last name, the reporter of this story has no relation or connection to Donna Gavin.