Jury Awards MTA Officer $150,000 in Sex Bias Case

A federal jury has determined that a Metropolitan Transportation Authority police sergeant had not been promoted because she is a woman and awarded her $150,000.

After about four hours of deliberations, the jury agreed that Sgt. Shari Barberic had been the victim of sexual discrimination. But the five-man, three-woman panel did not find that she had been subjected to sexual harassment, as she alleged.

“I’m pleased and I’ll be more pleased if it sends [the MTA] a clear message that sexual discrimination must stop,” Barberic said outside the courtroom afterward.

MTA attorney Robert Morgenstern declined to comment on the verdict.

Barberic, who works for the MTA’s Transit Police force, claimed she was treated differently from her male counterparts and denied promotions because of her gender. Her lawsuit alleged that she was passed over for coveted job assignments and promotions, which were given to male sergeants with less seniority.