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Who is Bobby Ledogar? US Marshal fired for standing up for harassed lesbian colleague

US Marshal Bobby Ledogar said he was fired for standing up for Dawn Mahoney, a gay woman and Army veteran who was horrrifically harrassed by her peers

A United States Marshal claimed he is being dismissed just 70 days before retirement because he stood up for a lesbian woman who was being harassed at work, harassment which included male cops urinating in her cookie jar, news outlets reported on Thursday, August 26.

The news comes on the heels of the murder of newly-married lesbian couple Kylen Schulte Crystal Bec, who was found shot and killed in the middle of Utah wilderness after they were reportedly "spooked" by a 'weirdo' man near their campsite, then disappearing for four days. In June this year a video showing an alleged homophobic woman wearing her face mask under her chin and insulting same-sex relationship couples, went viral on social media.

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“To have this exposed, that you had U.S. Marshals and local police officers sexually harassing, assaulting, bullying, degrading and mocking a female U.S. Marshal who is a lesbian, that’s a nice big black eye against the government,” Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Bobby Ledogar told The Daily Beast.

“And it’s going to come out that one supervisor defended her, and the investigation of the female’s initial complaints was done by the same people she did a complaint against? You didn’t even let internal affairs do it? You investigate yourself? We’ve all seen a history of how that works out,” Ledogar said to The Daily Beast.

Ledogar worked with the Navy for five years, according to his LinkedIn profile, as a criminal investigator and as part of the military police. "It would be Marshal. Thank You. But the US Marshals took that away from me. I was told last night that I should be proud of myself, as a US Navy Veteran and my career as a Supervisory Deputy US Marshal, for all the great work I did. But they took that from me," he tweeted in June. In another tweet on August 23, he wrote: "The greatest quote I was sent from a dear friend and co-worker. Today we submit our written closing from my hearing. Over 5 years of disgusting hellish treatment through a dysfunctional system. Thank you all, some many great family and friends who CARE."

Cops urinated in her cookie jar

Dawn Mahoney, a deputy US Marshal, sought assistance from Ledogar, her supervisor in the summer of 2015. Mahoney, a gay woman and Army veteran, stated that some of her male coworkers in the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force harassed her relentlessly and that the office culture was similar to 'Animal House', but with firearms. Someone in her office in Central Islip, New York, urinated in a cookie jar on her desk, she alleged. When she walked past him, a task force member allegedly looked at her physique and exclaimed, "Look at you, you sexy bitch," before clutching her waist.

During the execution of a search warrant, one of those officers was later accused of shoving her from behind while she was monitoring a woman inside a house. She told the United States Marshals Service Office of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) that she thought her coworker's actions were "premeditated," and that "his presence there was to instill fear in her and to send a message," according to records.

'Instead, he chose me, a female and a lesbian'

Mahoney believes that part of the problem stems from her selection for the Fugitive Task Force, an elite unit of United States Marshals. “There were so many male deputies that desperately wanted that opportunity,” she said in a letter of support for Ledogar, explaining why he chose her over the males who equally sought the role. He “could have given it to any one of them. Instead, he chose me, a female and a lesbian.”

In 2014, Mahoney was promoted to team leader of the task force, and the harassment began in earnest. Members of the task force publicly humiliated her to the point where she eventually quit as a leader but remained a member. Some cops continued to harass her, and she said that the same officers would "interrogate all the young male interns about their sex lives" to see if they were gay, as well as make derogatory remarks about women's bodies, including female interns. “It was a free-for-all of abuse,” she alleged, adding that their bosses would frequently chuckle at the harassment.

'Fishing expeditions'

Ledogar listened to her and offered assistance. He believed her when she indicated the bullying made her feel insecure and that it occurred on the field, potentially endangering civilians. As a result, he escalated the issue up the chain of command and attempted to initiate an internal investigation. That's when he claims he began to face reprisal. Over the next four years, four additional internal investigations were launched against Ledogar, which his lawyers refer to as "fishing expeditions." One of them accused him of making racial remarks at work, and he said that the report was made by one of the police harassing Mahoney in retaliation for her support. Ledogar was fired as a result of one of the investigations, fewer than three months before he was set to retire.

The investigation into Mahoney's allegations came to a halt without any action being taken. One of the investigators was a personal friend of a supervisor on Mahoney's task force, according to Ledogar's appeal letter, and one of the same people who was "accused of having condoned the very misconduct being investigated." He levelled more charges against the probe, calling it biassed. “What is most difficult for me to accept personally is that his current persecution is solely based on his courageous actions of support in standing up for me, the original victim of bullying by those making retaliatory complaints against him,” Mahoney wrote in her letter of support for Ledogar.

When she sought help from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-NY) office, a new investigation into her harassment accusations was launched, and it discovered that the earlier probe had been tainted by a "conflict of interest." In the current probe, Ledogar testified multiple times, eventually leading to Mahoney's settlement in 2019. She was transferred out of the task force after losing her dream position. On the other hand, the majority of the men that harassed her are still around. One was fired in 2015 after allegedly almost punching Ledogar during an argument about Mahoney's support. The US Marshals Service refused to comment on the matter, citing concerns about privacy.