NYC cop couple harassed by jealous, married boss who used NYPD’s resources to investigate pregnancy: suit
A Bronx sergeant who stole the heart of a stunning colleague and had a child with her was treated like a criminal by jealous fellow cops — who ‘investigated’ the identity of the baby-daddy like it was a criminal case, according to a lawsuit.
Sgt. Milton Valerio, 40, met Anajess Alvarez — who was the NYPD’s poster cop in a series of recruitment billboards — at the transit station house where the two worked near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx in 2019.
“I said ‘no’ to him a few times,” Alvarez, 28, told The Post with a grin. “Then we went out while with friends and we just hit it off.”
The couple decided to keep their relationship quiet because she was new and wanted to make her own way as a police officer.
“I wanted to make a name for myself,” she said. “I didn’t want it to be like ‘Oh, that’s Valerio’s girlfriend.’”
Around the same time the two were falling in love, Alvarez said her married boss, Lt. Christian Hernandez, “expressed interest” in her.”
“Despite her rejections, Hernandez continually asked her if she should be with him, even stating, ‘You’re so much better than my wife,’” according to a discrimination lawsuit Valerio filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last month.
Things got worse for Alvarez in October 2020 when she told her bosses she was pregnant.
Hernandez became obsessed with finding out who the father was, according to Valerio’s lawsuit.
Hernandez began searching her license plate in an NYPD plate-reading system to see where she’d been driving and would search other vehicles assigned to the command to see which officers were driving near her home, the lawsuit alleges.
At the same time, Capt. Salvatore Marchese pressed Alvarez. “You were one of my best cops, you shouldn’t have gotten pregnant,” he said, according to Valerio’s suit.
In early 2021, Hernandez found out that Alvarez was dating Valerio because he tracked the sergeant’s vehicle to the cop’s residence, according to court papers.
“The news that Alvarez had been in a relationship with another member of service was too much for defendant Hernandez to bear,” Valerio’s lawsuit states.
Hernandez allegedly began harassing Valerio, trying to get him kicked out of the precinct and alleging that he stole vacation time, an accusation that was later found to be untrue, according to his lawsuit.
Meanwhile, pregnant Alvarez was stripped of her car and assigned to a foot post on an overnight shift for two months.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” said Alvarez, whose daughter with Valerio is now 3. “Because I didn’t give my lieutenant the time of day, he went after Valerio.”
Valerio, who was a field intelligence officer and didn’t supervise Alvarez, said he lost out on overtime and promotions.
The NYPD banned dating between supervisors and officers they regularly supervise after a lap-dancing scandal in 2022.
Meanwhile, Alvarez settled her own sexual harassment lawsuit against the city in August 2023 for $225,000.
The couple has since gotten engaged and is planning a wedding.
She still works in the Bronx transit district and Valerio works on the Upper West Side.
Alvarez said she knew it “wasn’t going to be easy” as an attractive woman at the NYPD.
“I didn’t think it was going to be as ugly as this,” she said.
The NYPD refused to comment on pending litigation.
But said in its settlement agreement with Alvarez it did not acknowledge any wrongdoing.
Valerio’s lawyer John Scola said the NYPD has “proven inept at addressing the rampant sexual harassment that plagues the department.”
“In this instance, an executive was allowed to use NYPD resources to track a female officer he was sexually harassing and then falsify charges against Sergeant Valerio without any punishment.”
