GREENFIELD — It’s been almost a year since former Greenfield Police Department (GPD) officer Nichole Gilbert was fired following an OWI charge. While that was a well-known incident, Gilbert quietly filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Greenfield on Oct. 23, 2023, just days after the incident. In the lawsuit, Gilbert claims she had been discriminated against by the department for years, citing violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Fourteenth Amendment.
The case was filed in the United States District Court of the Southern District of Indiana. The latest records indicate the two sides held a telephonic status conference Sept. 17 with the magistrate judge. Court records state the parties discussed the status of discovery and readiness for a settlement conference and that the conference concluded without further order.
The lawsuit says the City of Greenfield is being accused of sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, and unlawful medical examination. The lawsuit states Gilbert is asking for all lost wages and benefits she sustained or will sustain as a result of defendant’s unlawful conduct, compensatory damages for past and future pecuniary and non-pecuniary losses, punitive damages, pre-judgment interest, an award of reasonable attorneys’ fees and awarding all other relief proper in the premises.
Gilbert is a 1996 Greenfield-Central High School graduate who had been with the GPD since 2009. She worked her way through the ranks after being hired as a field officer. She also served several years with the Cumberland Police Department. Her first job in law enforcement was at the Hancock County Jail.
Under the leadership of former chief Jeff Rasche, Gilbert was promoted to lieutenant with the GPD in 2019 and given the duties of head of the General Investigation and Narcotics Division. However, Gilbert requested to leave investigations last summer and go back to being a patrol officer with GPD under the leadership of chief Brian Hartman. She had been a patrol officer since last summer and no longer did investigation work.
The lawsuit claims that Gilbert was raped by a city employee, a mechanic who works on GPD and city cars, in January of 2017. The lawsuit states a protective order for Gilbert was part of that case. The lawsuit states that, following a trial where the defendant was found not guilty, the court granted Gilbert a two-year protective order (PO).
However, in May of 2021 when Hartman became the new chief of police, the PO had expired. The lawsuit claims that the mechanic subjected Gilbert to a hostile work environment based on her sex. The lawsuit claims that Gilbert complained multiple times about the mechanic being in the garage when she would go there for work on her car, and his supervisor’s response was “is she over this yet?”
In addition, on May 27, 2021, the lawsuit states Gilbert was lying on her stomach at the city garage inspecting a vehicle involved in a shooting when the mechanic approached the vehicle and stood over the top of Gilbert while he spoke to the evidence technician. This, the lawsuit states, came although the mechanic was not supposed to be in the GPD, where Gilbert would frequently see him.
The lawsuit claims that, in addition to being subjected to a hostile work environment by the mechanic, the GPD also denied the plaintiff (Gilbert) promotions because of her sex. For instance, the lawsuit states that a man was promoted to operations captain on July 13, 2021, a position for which Gilbert had applied, and that Gilbert verbally complained to the chief of police a month later about ongoing discriminatory conduct by the man who was promoted. On May 21, 2022, Gilbert submitted a written complaint of sexual discrimination and sexual harassment.
The lawsuit says that, on June 17, 2022, in response to the investigation, the male officer who was promoted over Gilbert announced his retirement. On July 8, 2022, the chief (Hartman) promoted another man to operations captain while Gilbert was again denied a promotion.
The lawsuit also claims that a human resources official told Gilbert in July 2022 that male subordinate employees complained about her and she was under investigation. The lawsuit states that the male subordinate employees were part of the group of city employees who supported the mechanic both during and after the criminal rape trial. Following this Gilbert it is noted in the lawsuit requested to return to the patrol division.
From the time the protective order expired through August 2022, Gilbert made multiple complaints regarding the mechanic’s unwelcome and unwanted sexual harassment, according to the lawsuit. However, “neither the City nor the GPD took action,” the lawsuit said. Gilbert applied for another protective order against the mechanic in Sept. 2022, but the motion was denied.
The next day, on Sept. 21, 2022, Gilbert was placed on administrative leave for a fitness for duty examination. Gilbert was then stripped of her guns, ID, and told that she was banned from the GPD. City officials, the lawsuit says, also locked Gilbert out of the reporting system. She was then driven home and had to sit in the back seat of a police car in full uniform, without her gun, which, according to the lawsuit, is “completely degrading for a police officer.”
The psychologist who conducted department-mandated testing on Gilbert said that she could return to work and told Gilbert she did not really understand why a test was needed, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit also claims that, despite the positive outcome of the test, city officials refused and continued Gilbert’s forced leave. The lawsuit goes on to claim that the human resources official met with Gilbert and told her she could either resign, or the chief (Hartman) would do an internal affairs investigation on her.
The lawsuit noted that Gilbert told officials she would not resign. However, the internal investigation did not start until December 2022, and the plaintiff was not interviewed until February 2023. After six months off the force on forced leave, Gilbert was allowed to return to work in March, 2023, the lawsuit states.
Gilbert was arrested by officials from the Fishers Police Department on June 18, 2023 for OWI. Officials with the GPD sent out a press release that morning indicating one of their officers had been arrested in Hamilton County.
“Officer Nichole Gilbert was terminated last week in a unanimous vote by the Greenfield Board of Works and Public Safety,” GPD Chief Brian Hartman said in an email to the Daily Reporter in mid-Oct. 2023.
Gilbert was then fired shortly after her OWI case was settled. She then filed the lawsuit against the City of Greenfield.
