Who is Karen Veltri? FBI agent alleges bosses sent rainbow d**k pic, made lewd comments
In a lawsuit against US Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Karen Veltri has alleged that she was sexually harassed by two supervisors at the bureau’s Las Vegas office, adding that she even received a photo of a rainbow-colored sex toy from one of her accusers.
In the suit filed in Nevada federal court last week, which seeks unspecified damages, Veltri added that the supervisors also retaliated against her for reporting the abuse to several oversight bodies, New York Post reported. She finally got the courage to report the harassment to FBI Director Christopher Wray via email.
READ MORE
Rape and sodomy scandal hits NYPD in shocking lawsuit by Maria Mendez
Who is Karen Veltri?
The suit states that Veltri was transferred to the Las Vegas Division in November 2019 after stints at the Newark field office and FBI headquarters in Washington. She worked under Assistant Special Agent in Charge Francis Cucinotta, who is one of the accused men who she alleged made several inappropriate comments to her and tried to have a sexual relationship with her.
One of the instances took place in January 2020, when Cucinotta allegedly spoke to Veltri about “ground balls." According to Veltri, it was a sexual euphemism. “I’m sure you know all about the bases, but I’m talking about ground balls,” he said with a wink, according to the suit. He also told her how nice her hair looked when she wore it down at work. He also told her that she should “wear it down more often,” according to the suit.
The second supervisor who has been accused by Veltri is Supervisory Special Agent Robert Bennett, to whom Veltri complained about Cucinotta’s behavior in the spring of 2020. Being an employee assistance program officer, he was in the perfect position to help her out of the sticky situation but instead, started to sexually harass her as well, the suit said.
“On November 20, 2020, Bennett sent Plaintiff in a text message on her bureau-issued cell phone, a photograph with a rainbow-colored dildo between his legs,” the suit states. Veltri believed he was trying to confirm her sexuality as he had chosen a suggestive color of the sex toy. “My D**k pic!!!!!” he wrote under the photo, according to the suit. He followed it up with a photo of a unicorn with a rainbow-colored horn four days later, with a message saying he was “looking for Bieber d**k pics."
He also allegedly texted her photos of booze and guns he owns. Veltri passed the information to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, adding that she was particularly concerned about “a loaded shotgun Bennett kept in a cabinet, next to his desk, in his office,” given his history of alcohol abuse. According to the suit, no action was taken against the accused even though Veltri reported the harassment by both supervisors to the EEO, the FBI’s Inspection Division and the bureau’s Office of Professional Responsibility.