North Andover Officer Katherine Gehrke Files Suit Against Town, Chief

NORTH ANDOVER, MA — North Andover police Sgt. Katherine Gehrke has filed a lawsuit against Police Chief Charles Gray and the Town of North Andover in which Gehrke claims she has been subjected to a pattern and practice of sexual harassment, retaliation and gender discrimination.

The 10-page lawsuit, which also named Deputy Town Manager Denise Casey as a defendant, was filed in Essex Superior Court by Needham attorney Timothy Burke. Burke's office provided a copy of the lawsuit to Patch.

The lawsuit alleges that there was retaliation against Gehrke by the Town of North Andover because she was a whistleblower, that Gehrke's civil rights were violated by Gray and Casey, and that Gray and Casey intentionally inflicted emotional distress.

Gehrke has demanded a trial by jury on all counts.

The lawsuit says Gehrke is a 17-year veteran of the staff who has "received numerous awards and commendation for her work ... "

During Gehrke's time with the department, according to the suit, a pattern of sexual harassment, retaliation and gender discrimination has been "perpetrated by members of the department, including, but not limited to (Gray)." The suit says the behavior "has been tolerated and tacitly approved by supervisory staff members, including (Gray)."

The lawsuit points out that Gehrke is one of only three female officers in the department, where there are 40 male officers.

Among the allegations: when Gehrke transferred to the department after nine years with the Hingham Police Department, her pay started one step below the maximum salary. But, Gehrke says that she was told she would be credited for her previous years of service and a pay raise would come soon.

But in March 2022, the Town of North Andover revised its collective bargaining agreement so that only years of service in North Andover were credited, and not previous years of civil service.

In the suit, Gehrke says she "was the only North Andover superior officer who had prior years of service with the Town of Hingham and who would be adversely affected by the change in language."

Gehrke says she complained to Casey about the change and requested a meeting with North Andover officials. But no such meeting ever occurred.

Additionally, when Gehrke served simultaneously as the town's School Resource Officer (SRO) and Court Officer and Firearms Officer, she complained to Gray, who was then a lieutenant, that the positions should be separate.

The suit says the recommendation was not well received by Gray, and that Gehrke eventually resigned as SRO. According to the suit, Gehrke never was promoted to detective, which was "retaliatory and done as a consequence of expressing her dissatisfaction with (Gray's) decision-making."

According to the suit, Gray took over as chief in March 2016 and "began to implement and foster a culture of discriminatory and harassing conduct within the police department."

The suit says that Gehrke's support of a female officer who filed a Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) complaint against the Town of North Andover "negatively impacted Gray's opinion of Gehrke."

According to The Eagle-Tribune, the MCAD complaint was filed by former North Andover Police Officer Kara Caffrey-Rowley in 2019. The suit, according to the newspaper, alleged that Gray "engaged in a continuous pattern of demeaning and discriminatory behavior towards (Caffrey-Rowley)."

In Gehrke's suit, she also alleges that the department refused to offer any critical incident stress management to those North Andover officers who responded to the scene of the Columbia Gas explosions in 2018.

The suit notes that Gehrke also informed the department's director of Human Resources about multiple pranks taking place in the office, saying she was concerned "regarding the unprofessional environment at the department that was being fostered by Chief Gray."

The pranks, according to the suit, included putting a barricade in front of the elevator to prevent anyone from exiting the elevator.

Meanwhile, the suit says that Gray also performed pranks that included adding salt into officers' coffee and moving officers' personal vehicles from the parking lot to remote locations.

In the suit, Gehrke says she also repeatedly complained about the poor condition of the women's locker room at the police station. The men's locker room was in much better condition, she says.

However, Gehrke alleges her "continual complaints about unprofessional conduct, disparate treatment, the condition and disparity between the men's and women's locker rooms, resulted in being branded as a 'trouble-maker' by her supervisors within the department, including Chief Gray," according to the lawsuit.

Also, according to the suit, Gray commented to Gehrke that female officers who file complaints are "setting themselves up for a payday," implying that "the reason females file complaints is to be compensated from a lawsuit."

Patch reached out to Gray about the lawsuit, but did not get a response. North Andover Town Manager Melissa Rodrigues said in an email: "as a matter of policy, the Town doesn't comment on litigation or personnel matters."