'Abusive Work Environment:' Queens Public Defenders Face ADA Suit

KEW GARDENS, QUEENS — Dana Longstreet was struggling with depression, thyroid issues, and a concussion when she asked her then-employer, Queens Defenders, if she could work from home two or three days a week in December 2019.

Two weeks later, Longstreet’s request, which is protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act and was recommended by her psychiatrist, was denied — prompting months of discriminatory and retaliatory behavior by Queens Defenders on the basis of her disability, a new lawsuit contends.

After she asked to work from home, Longstreet said in the suit that she was excluded from weekly senior staff meetings, left out of calls about her work, and ignored in group settings. Lori Zeno, Queens Defenders’ co-founder and executive director, didn’t speak to her directly for over two months, the complaint reads.

“I understood this behavior to reflect [Zeno’s] feelings of hostility towards me for having made the reasonable accommodation request,” Longstreet said in the suit.

Long before she asked for a disability accommodation, however, Longstreet saw Zeno behave in a way that she deemed inappropriate for the workplace, records show.

‘Abusive work environment’

A couple of months into her job at Queens Defenders Longstreet started to get concerned about the defense group’s “abusive work environment” — primarily including Zeno’s workplace behavior.

The group’s executive director cursed at and insulted employees and clients, made disparaging remarks about victims of rape and people with Down’s syndrome, and said she would sue an attorney who left Queens Defender’s during maternity leave, the lawsuit contends.

“"They're f****** idiots. I always call people f****** idiots,” Zeno said in a sexual harassment training, the complaint reads.

Retaliatory behavior

After denying Longstreet’s request to work from home part-time — and instead suggesting that she practice self care or move from New Jersey to Queens — Zeno began to retaliate against Longstreet, according to the suit.

Amid the pandemic she repeatedly suggested in front of senior staff that Longstreet wasn’t working enough, hired people to take over parts of Longstreet’s job without telling her, and didn’t send her promised bonuses or pay increases, the complaint reads.

On Saturday, May 9 — while New York was under a shelter in place order — Zeno told all Queens Defender employees to go to an in-person meeting the following Monday. Longstreet went because she was “afraid of losing [her] job,” but said that Zeno didn’t wear a mask and hugged everyone. The following week Longstreet was diagnosed with pneumonia, according to the lawsuit.

At the beginning of June, Longstreet went on short term disability under the Family and Medical Leave Act because of ongoing symptoms caused by COVID-19, which she likely contracted in April.

EEOC charge and resignation

While on leave, in July, Longstreet filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She began working remotely in August, and faced continued retaliation following the charge, the suit says.

On Sep. 3, Zeno told Longstreet that she was expected back in the office on Sep. 8. The following day, Longstreet obtained a letter from her physician, requesting that she continue to be able to work from home because of her medical conditions — including Hashimoto's disease, high blood pressure, dizziness, chest pain, brain fog, and more, records show.

“My doctor has advised me that commuting could put my health at risk. Please let me know whether Queens Defenders continues to refuse to accommodate my disabilities,” Longstreet wrote in an email to Zeno, sent after the group’s executive director denied her request to work from home.

According to the suit, Zeno replied, "I will not dignify your accusation with an answer! Instead, I will forward this to my Labor attorney. Maybe you should do the same.”

Zeno put Longstreet on temporary unpaid administrative leave on Sep. 8 — after she didn’t show up to the office in person, but worked a full day at home, records show.

On Sep. 29, nine days after Longstreet sent Zeno another note from her doctor requesting a work-from-home accommodation — which received no response — the Queens Defenders employee reached out again, this time to say that administrative leave posed “a financial hardship" and left her with “no choice but to end my employment with Queens Defenders, effective immediately," the suit contends.

Queens Defenders told Patch that the group does not provide comment on matters related to pending litigation.

Ongoing workplace allegations against Queens Defenders

This is not the first time that Zeno has been in the limelight for allegations about workplace misconduct.

In January 2021, Zeno reportedly went on a two-plus-hour diatribe urging Queens Defenders’ employees not to unionize — a plan that 90 percent of qualifying staff members agreed to in December 2020. Zeno said that the union is a “mob-like group,” and accused members of using “threats,” “coercion” and “manipulation” in their organizing efforts, The City reported.

The following month, two outspoken union supporters were fired from their jobs at Queens Defenders, in what they reportedly described as a “retaliatory firing.”

In a statement to QNS from Queens Defenders’ management, they said that the terminations were for “just cause, and entirely appropriate in view of the conduct of the affected employees.”