A former Boston cop has won a $1 million lawsuit after claiming she was fired for calling out co-workers who made lewd comments about her sex life — despite jurors finding she was unfit for the job.
Enxhi Qirici, 32, was fired from the Boston Police Department during a year-long probationary period in 2019 following allegations that she erupted at fellow officers during two separate incidents, the Boston Globe reported.
In 2021, Qirici sued the department after her termination, claiming it was retaliatory and that she endured ongoing sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace.
The city’s attorneys argued that she was simply unfit for the job, having allegedly lost control of her emotions with fellow officers on the force.
Jurors ruled Tuesday afternoon that Qirici had endured a hostile work environment within the department, but found it did not factor into her being fired.
During the week-long civil trial, Qirici’s attorney, Ilir Kavaja, claimed that leadership within the BPD allowed an environment where racism and sexism were allowed to thrive, the Boston Globe reported.
“This case is about fairness and equality,” Kavaja said.
Qirici — an Albanian immigrant who came to the US as a teenager — entered the department’s academy in 2017.
She testified that after graduating, she was assigned two field training officers and eventually began dating one of them, Eliot Telisnor.
Qirici said that after news spread that she was dating Telisnor, who is Black, she faced a wave of lewd jokes and harassment about her sex life for dating a Black man.
However, during this time, she was also involved in the two incidents, both of which Telisnor was present for, that ultimately led to her being fired.
The first occurred in July 2018, when she stopped at a construction site to ask Telisnor about a police report and got into a dispute with a Northeastern University officer over where she parked her cruiser, according to her termination letter obtained by the Boston Globe.
The letter states that she parked illegally multiple times and used profanity during the incident.
Qirici testified that her actions were inappropriate but argued to the court that the officer had been rude to her.
The second incident occurred about a month later, when she and Telisnor were stationed together on a different construction detail.
During their break, however, they drove to Logan Airport for a personal matter.
Qirici was then approached by a Massachusetts State Police trooper at the airport, where she allegedly became emotional and agitated when he requested her identification.
Following this incident, the department placed her on desk duty, confiscated her gun, and barred her from working details or overtime.
Qirici testified that the harassment she had already been facing intensified. She said officers mocked her sex life and interracial relationship, speculated about whether she was pregnant, and stared at her body.
In March 2019, she brought a complaint to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, but was fired from the force three weeks later.
Telisnor, who still serves as a police officer, testified that “she had her career, and it was taken away from her,” The Boston Globe reported.
Although her lawyer said the timing suggested she was being retaliated against, the city’s attorney, Edward Whitesell, said the complaint played no role in her termination.
Whitesell emphasized that Qirici was still on probation — a period that allows the department to remove problematic officers early on — and described the department as “a paramilitary organization whose personnel are armed and regularly face high-stress situations.”
Qirici testified that after being fired, she spiraled into distress, could hardly make ends meet working as a food delivery driver, and became depressed.
She has since gone to law school and now practices as an attorney.
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