Hammond police officer who brought unsuccessful sexual assault litigation against city in 2017 resigns

A Hammond police officer who unsuccessfully sued the city and a coworker over an alleged 2016 sexual assault has announced her resignation from the police department effective on July 30.

Corporal Denise Szany’s legal battle with the city of Hammond stemmed from an October 2016 incident during which then-officer Jaime Garcia allegedly grabbed her by the vest before slapping her on the buttocks. Garcia was suspended for five days without pay over the incident.

In September of 2017, Szany sued Garcia and the City of Hammond in federal court, claiming that her constitutional rights had been violated and seeking monetary damages.

Judge Philip Simon of the U.S. District Court Northern District of Indiana ruled in May of 2020 that the City of Hammond didn’t violate her civil rights and that the case belonged in a state court, not a federal one. After the ruling, the city and Garcia sent Szany bills for legal fees totaling over $8,000. Szany’s lawyer asked Simon to lessen or eliminate Szany’s obligation to the city. He reduced Hammond’s cost claims by $294, but ordered her to pay the remainder.

Szany sued Garcia and the city in Lake County court in June of 2020, but in September of that year moved to have the case dismissed. Both she and the defendants agreed to bear their own legal costs.

Szany was not the only woman to bring allegations of sexual misconduct against Garcia. In 2019, two female former high school students who had participated in separate ride-alongs with Garcia came forward with allegations that Garcia groped them and made inappropriate sexual remarks, court records state. He quit the Hammond Police Department that year while under investigation.

Zailey Hess, who was 17 in 2016 when she participated in her ride-along, sued Garcia along with former Hammond Police Chief John Doughty in 2022 in federal court. A U.S. District Court judge initially ruled to dismiss the suit, but earlier this month, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago reversed the ruling, allowing the litigation to proceed against Garcia but not against Doughty. The judges rejected arguments made by Garcia’s attorney, who acknowledged that the former officer’s conduct was “boorish” but claimed it was not severe enough to constitute a violation of Hess’s rights, according to federal court records.

“It is well established that sexual assault by a government official acting under color of law violates the Constitution,” the judges wrote in their ruling. “We decline the invitation to draw lines between constitutional and un-constitutional sexual assaults by government officials acting under color of law. Sexual assault is an intentional act that never serves a legitimate governmental purpose.”

In a statement to the Post-Tribune, Szany lauded the decision.

“I believe I have been vindicated by Hess’s victory before the federal appellate court,” she wrote. “I like that the message from the appellate court, in the Hess case, is that sexual assault against women should never be marginalized.”

Szany, who serves in the Hammond Police Department’s Traffic Division, first joined the department in 2008. In her statement she wrote that while the Hammond Police Department “has many great officers,” the organization’s climate is “hostile to women.”

“I am happy to be out of the Hammond PD,” she wrote. “The Hammond PD is not motivated to promote women.”

Police Department spokesman Lieutenant Steve Kellogg wrote in an email to the Post-Tribune that the department does not comment on personnel matters.

“I can tell you that we wish all of our officers the best in whatever career path they decide to take,” he wrote.