A veteran NYPD officer who once blew the whistle on shoddy breast pumping conditions for cops says she was wrongfully forced into early retirement because of a message she wrote that was incorrectly construed as a suicide note, new court papers allege.
Officer Viviana Ayende says the Medical Board ignored her doctors’ determination that she is fit for regular duty instead voting to force her into early retirement on April 18, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit from Thursday.
“As a result … plaintiff will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost pension benefits,” the suit says.
The 44-year-old mother of six — who came forward in 2019 about the alleged terrible breast-pumping conditions for nursing moms on the force — claims that she suffered years of retaliation for speaking out about misconduct, the court papers claim.
Then Ayende became “fed up” when the NYPD suspended her for a month in October 2018 for refusing to work with a partner who “abandoned her” on a tour, the court papers say.
In 2019, Viviana Ayende joined a lawsuit against the city alleging awful breast-pumping conditions for NYPD moms. Stephen YangSo she left a note to her husband saying “she was sorry and that she was leaving,” the filing claims.
Ayende says she meant that “she could not handle the NYPD anymore and that she was leaving” for Puerto Rico for the duration of her suspension and “to regroup,” the court papers and Ayende claim.
But, her husband reported the note to the NYPD who had her committed to the hospital as suicidal, the suit alleges.
After Viviana Ayende left her husband, right, a note he construed as a suicide note, he reported it to the NYPD, who had her committed to a psych ward.
Ayende was released two weeks later and has been on restricted duty ever since, the court papers say.
Ayende claims the incident then followed her for the next four years despite the fact that she repeatedly clarified that she wasn’t suicidal – a fact which her own private doctors corroborated, the filing claims. Finally, on Monday, the New York Police Pension Fund’s medical board forced her into early retirement.
“All these years no matter what I say and what I explain about the note, they still hold on and say I’m unfit even when I had a private doctor saying that I am fit for duty,” Ayende told The Post.
“It’s very wrong,” Ayende said through tears.
“It makes me sad,” she said. “I could do full duty, and I want to work, but I’m just not being allowed to.”
Ayende’s lawyer John Scola told The Post the forced retirement is “based on a faulty interpretation of this note from four years ago.”
“It’s insane,” the lawyer said.
Scola said if his client is forced to retire now, she could lose $15,000 a year in pension benefits because she won’t have made it to the 20-year mark when certain pension benefits kick in.
Ayende is asking a judge to overturn Monday’s determination and to allow her to continue working until she chooses to retire.
Viviana Ayende says her doctors determined she was fit to continue working, but the Medical Board voted to force her into retirement anyway. Erik Pendzich/ShutterstockIn 2019, Ayende joined a group of women in suing the city alleging deplorable conditions for nursing mothers including being forced to pump breast milk in a bodega and in the back of cars and then store the milk in maggot-ridden NYPD fridges. That case is still pending in Brooklyn federal court.
An NYPD spokesperson said: “The NYPD will decline to comment on pending litigation.”
The city Law Department and the New York Police Pension Fund both did not immediately return a request for comment.
