Hid her crimes

Court House News, September 29, 2022

HONOLULU — A federal judge in Hawaii found in favor of Honolulu's on the discrimination case brought by a would-be Honolulu police officer who says she was rejected based on her gender.

The city demonstrated she was rejected for not disclosing bribery and forgery crimes she committed in Turkmenistan.

Read the ruling here.  (must read)

EXCERPT:

…Sanders met with success in the early phases of her police recruit candidacy. She passed a physical fitness exam, medical exam, psychological exam, and drug test, and she met with a psychiatrist.  On April 11, 2019, she received a Conditional Offer of Employment.  On May 2, 2019, now-retired HPD Detective Mitchell Chung administered a pre-polygraph interview and polygraph examination to Sanders.  Sanders alleges that Chung sexually harassed her during the six-hour interview. More specifically, she claims:

− At the beginning of the interview, Chung told Sanders he “understood why [she] was divorced three times as [she] was beautiful,” asked if she liked Hawaiian guys,” and asked if she “had ever cheated on [her] husband.”

− Later, Chung “accused [her] of being a prostitute” because she revealed that her husband had sex trafficked her to his peers in Turkmenistan. Id. When Sanders responded, “I’m not a prostitute. . . . As far as I understand, that was abuse,” Chung responded, “But he prostituted you, which means that you’re a prostitute.” 

− Chung “wanted to know the specific number of men that had raped [Sanders], asked [her] if there were a few men at the same time of the rape, and [asked] whether those sexual acts were ‘anal, oral, or vaginal sex.’”

− Sanders “felt uncomfortable by the sexual questions . . . and would have felt more comfortable if a female officer was allowed to be present during the interview.”

− Chung also expressed unexplained skepticism and negativity about Sanders’ ability to be accepted as a recruit. He asked “how [she] planned on being a police officer while [she] had a disabled child.” TAC at 3. He also told Sanders that she had failed her first polygraph exam because she had “used drugs,” and when she told him that was impossible and demanded a second polygraph against his objections, he said, “FBI created studies about liars. If we found out that you’re lying, it’s going to be so bad in your case.” After she passed the second polygraph exam, he told her, “It doesn’t mean that you will pass the medical.” Id. When she told him she had already passed the medical exam, he said, “But that doesn’t mean that you’re going to pass [the] psychiatrist.” ….

On April 8, 2019, Sgt. Glen Luecke from the HPD Human Resources Department sent an email to Sanders’ 193-candidate pool, providing examples of commonly omitted undetected acts, and offering candidates an opportunity to “amend” their PHS accordingly….

—Sanders replied with additional possible crimes, including that her husband had “sold [her] a few times for [] money in order to buy himself alcohol and pay gambling debts . . . [while] he kept a knife by the throat of [her] 6 month son.” Dkt. No. 68-4. But Luecke’s message still did not prompt revelation of her forgery and role in her son’s emigration. 12 And though Sanders may not have intended to deceive the hiring panel when she omitted these events, her intention was immaterial. HPD’s hiring policies were clear, and they were uniformly applied. See Dkt. No. 62-1 at 13–14 (all four of Sanders’ colleagues who failed to disclose undetected acts were deemed unqualified and removed from further consideration)….

read … Court Ruling