NYPD Deputy Inspector Amanjeet Sandhu Sued for Sexual Harassment in Lawsuit That Exposes a Toxic Precinct Culture

A lawsuit filed Thursday, October 22, 2026, in Manhattan Supreme Court has thrust Deputy Inspector Amanjeet Sandhu — a uniformed NYPD commander currently serving at Transit Bureau Manhattan — into one of the most detailed and specific sexual harassment complaints to emerge from the department in recent years, as the New York Post confirmed from its review of the court filing.

The suit names Sandhu, Deputy Chief Steven Mauriello, the NYPD, and the police commissioner as defendants. It was filed by Officer Maria Delacruz, 33, who was assigned to Transit District 1 at Columbus Circle in Manhattan in 2023 — the same year Sandhu became the district’s commanding officer, according to Hoodline’s detailed account of the complaint’s timeline.

Delacruz alleges sexual harassment, civil rights violations, and workplace retaliation, and seeks unspecified damages.

The Allegations: A Timeline From 2023 to 2024

The lawsuit’s factual allegations, as documented across multiple published accounts of the court filing, describe a pattern that escalated steadily over approximately two years.

Upon Delacruz’s assignment to Transit District 1 in 2023, Sandhu allegedly declared his love for her and expressed his desire to become her lover rather than remain her supervisor, according to the New York Post account of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit reveals that Delacruz was often forced to spend her work shifts in Sandhu’s office or accompanying him in his departmental vehicle. During one of those vehicle patrols, the suit alleges, Sandhu asked her to join him for a drive and tried to kiss her. She refused. “No, you are married,” she told him, as Total News documented from the lawsuit.

At a Christmas party at the Glen Island Harbour Club in New Rochelle — a venue outside the district — Sandhu allegedly grabbed Delacruz’s arm and urged her to leave with him and sleep with him, as Hoodline reported from the court filing. On another occasion described in the suit, when she arrived at his office door, he told her to come inside, as the New York Post reported.

According to the lawsuit, Sandhu made explicit remarks about her body and disclosed sexually explicit dreams involving her.

According to the suit, Sandhu sent her a disappearing WhatsApp message containing a pornographic video in September 2024, asked how many dildos she owned and suggested buying one, questioned her about her sexual activity and masturbation.

The harassment continued digitally after she left his command. According to the suit, Sandhu sent her a disappearing WhatsApp message containing a pornographic video in September 2024, asked how many dildos she owned and suggested buying one, questioned her about her sexual activity and masturbation, and later sent an image of a woman wearing a thong, according to the filing. In late 2024, he sent her a graphic image of a woman in a sexual pose, the complaint said.

“Enough. That’s my personal business,” Delacruz told him, according to the lawsuit.

The Locker Room Confrontation and the Suppressed Report

Among the more troubling allegations in the filing is what the lawsuit describes as a hostile environment that spread beyond Sandhu himself and into the wider precinct culture.

By the summer of 2024, sexual rumors about Delacruz and Sandhu — rumors she has consistently denied, insisting she never had a sexual relationship with her commander — had, according to the suit, “contributed to serious workplace hostility,” as the New York Post reported. The hostility manifested in a specific and deeply humiliating incident: while Delacruz was partially undressed in the women’s locker room, another female officer confronted her, accusing her of “f—ing the captain,” as the New York Post reported from the court filing. The confrontation led the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau to interview Delacruz.

At that interview, she did not disclose the sexual harassment — fearing retaliation, she said, according to the suit.

The second named defendant, Deputy Chief Steven Mauriello, enters the lawsuit at this point. Mauriello allegedly urged Delacruz to limit what she told investigators about a workplace confrontation, and offered to help arrange a transfer if she did. Delacruz confronted Mauriello in his office on July 17, 2024, according to the suit. She took the transfer. She did not tell IAB about the sexual harassment, as the complaint documents.

Delacruz is still a police officer with the NYPD, as the New York Post confirmed.

The NYPD’s Pattern: From Maddrey to Sandhu

The lawsuit situates itself explicitly within what it describes as an alarming trend of sexual misconduct within the NYPD.

The institutional context is documented in the public record. In December 2024, Jeffrey Maddrey — who had served as Chief of Department, the NYPD’s highest-uniformed position — resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct filed by a subordinate officer. Maddrey’s resignation followed claims that he had made sexual demands of the officer beginning in June 2023 — the same year, notably, that Sandhu allegedly began his conduct toward Delacruz.

The NYPD reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining a workplace free from harassment and misconduct following the Maddrey resignation. Whether a similar statement will be issued in the Sandhu case is not yet known.

The case is proceeding in Manhattan Supreme Court.